A deadline is in place to prevent a repeat of a funfair closure in Biggleswade, after last year’s event was asked to shut on the opening day.
The J W Harris and Sons funfair was halted last August by Biggleswade Town Council because of paperwork concerns.
The event organiser has written to council officers asking for permission to stage a funfair at Eagle Farm Road from Thursday 17th to Sunday 20th August.
A report to the council’s public land and open spaces committee confirmed a third-party agreement should be established with the organiser.
“It was agreed the organiser be advised that all relevant paperwork should be submitted to the safety advisory group of Central Bedfordshire Council,” said the report.
“Separately, the organiser should provide assurances of how concerns about noise, parking, public conveniences and protecting the football pitches will be addressed.
“On receipt of this information, a third-party agreement will be drawn up and presented to the organiser to sign.
“It was provisionally agreed that a charge of £100 per day would be made to cover staffing costs of site visits to ensure adherence to the third-party agreement.
“And a £500 deposit would be taken to cover any damages or a breach of the agreement incurring cost.”
Town Councillor Jonathan Woodhead asked: “Is it possible to put a timeline in, after which the town council would be unwilling to support the application.
“We don’t want to be in the ridiculous situation we were in last August where we were very exposed and the event had to be pulled at the last minute for various reasons.
“The council can’t afford to do that, never mind the fairground organisers. I propose that if we haven’t had a safety advisory group agreement by July 11, then the council can’t support the funfair at Eagle Farm Road.”
BTC’s head of governance and strategic partnerships Karim Hosseini replied: “It would be good to have an internal mechanism or cut off date to make our decision. It went very close to the wire indeed, last year, too close.”
Town Councillor Duncan Strachan inquired whether there are “any insurance implications to the town council from this and would it be covered”, if the event goes ahead.
“I’m concerned we’re putting the onus on the third party because we can be exposed as the landowners. It’s therefore our risk, regardless of that,” he warned.
“We should check with our insurance brokers and increase whatever levy there is to cover extra premiums, if necessary.”
Mr Hosseini confirmed: “The agreement is such that the public liability element of the insurance needs to be borne by the third party, so the event organiser in this case.”
Town clerk Peter Tarrant added: “Officers need to go away and make sure that’s the case.”
Town Councillor Mark Knight said: “As landowners, we can’t pass all the burden to the advisory group. I don’t want to get to July 11, where it’s happy, but we’re not as a council.”
Councillors unanimously approved the July paperwork deadline.
