City of Edinburgh Council is consulting about plans to tender for additional major events in public parks from 2017 to 2020.
It seems to us that any comments you may have are more likely to ‘shape’ events than to stop them from happening in the first place, but we may be wrong.
Venues, events, times
- The Meadows, August, Fringe event, 23 days
- Inverleith Park, August, cultural event (e.g. food and drink festival), 8 days
- West Princes Street Gardens (red blaise area), August, Fringe event, 1 month
- West Princes Street Gardens, October, ‘enclosed and ticketed’ cultural event (e.g. food and drink festival), 10 days.
All the proposed events would be ‘family friendly’, and all except the Meadows one are described as ‘high quality’. The time-spans include set-up and breakdown.
The online questionnaire in most cases appears to assume that an event will take place, but asks for comment about whether this is the right type of event, and whether the duration/timing are appropriate.
Some people may wish to use ‘Other comments’ boxes to talk about maintaining free access to public property (as opposed to ticketed access to enclosed and exclusive areas).
Meadows and the Manifesto
Interestingly, in the section dealing with the Meadows, the Comments box is prefaced by these two paragraphs:
The Edinburgh Parks Events Manifesto sets out that 23 days is the limit for “performance/event days” on The Meadows during the Festival. In 2015/16 the contract allowed an additional 3 days for event set up and 3 days for breakdown.
Feedback from suppliers suggested that this set up and breakdown period may be too short to allow for appropriate health and safety measures to be carried out. This could result in performance time being reduced and impact the event’s commercial viability.
Our reaction to this is: If a non-high-quality event can't operate profitably within the Manifesto criteria, then it is the wrong kind of event for this venue. In which case, the suppliers should step aside and make way for something else. The Council should certainly not deviate from its rules at the first hint of a commercial temper tantrum.
Officials argue that tendering out events in this way has various benefits:
- Event applications can be scored on the quality (both physical and cultural) of the event
- The market rate of rental can be achieved for each venue
- [It is a] more transparent and fairer process for all potential suppliers
- It offers suppliers of events the security of longer term leasing arrangements.
But notably missing from this approach is an alternative assumption about public parks – that they should not be used for these kinds of activities at all. Is there not a value in relatively quiet, uncluttered spaces close to the city centre, free to enter and free from commercial clamour, particularly during Edinburgh's busiest times of year?
You can access the survey here, and have until 29 June to complete it.
[Tent images: We Love Solo, Creative Commons]
Got a view? Tell us at spurtle@hotmail.co.uk and @theSpurtle and Facebook
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@theSpurtle Have just replied, what a good feeling to have a meaningful rant! #dontwantthemwonthavethem
Edinburgh Council just won't leave our parks alone.
@theSpurtle more commercial imposition on our green spaces. Does the cooncil actually care what residents think?
@CityCycling @theSpurtle Desperate for any form of revenue, I'd guess.
@Mr_Bricolage totally. Cooncil closing off land it owns from access rights highlights a real weakness in LRA 2003 @andywightman @theSpurtle
@Mr_Bricolage @andywightman LRA 2003 does not provide protection in case where cooncil owns the land & wants to restrict access @theSpurtle