Thursday, April 14, 2011

Rejected wedding street party

With the Prime Minister himself stepping in to tell local councils "not to interfere" with street party plans on the 29th April it seems that guidance only applies to pro-monarchy pro-wedding street parties as the Republic group discovered when they applied to hold an anti-monarchy street party in Camden.

From Camden council the statement they've released gives the reason for the rejection being due to

objections from Camden residents and organisations representing more than 140 local businesses. These groups strongly opposed the event as they felt it would negatively impact on their sales, and they also raised a number of public safety concerns as to how the event would be managed.
Yep you can't hold a street party because you won't buy our tat and you'll discourage pro-monarchists from the area and buying stuff from us. As for "public safety concerns" what points did the locals raise that didn't get flagged by the police force who apparently raised no objections?

As for those 140 objections try three. Hey isn't this like someone owning multiple properties in one area getting multiple votes? Doubly odd considering Republic received an email from the Council stating:
We have had replies from all consultees and these have been positive for your event.
Gosh this isn't the property owner decided what his tenants think is it? No I'm sure any letter they sent had a full 130 odd signatures to back it up.


But isn't this all moot given that the Council have kindly pointed Republic to the Lincoln's Inn Fields as an alternative location; why don't they hold it there? Well because they'd have to submit yet another application, possibly another event plan, as well as liaise with a whole other group of locals and local businesses; all in three weeks, at a cost to them, and with no guarantee of approval.

To add to the confusion there's the non-officially published that's cropped up from spokespersons for Camden that added to the reasons for rejection:
  1. Lack of an event management plan; and
  2. Lack of local connection
Except according to the police emails an event management plan was submitted, and according to Republic at least one local business was going to supply the food


So the locals who were asked didn't object; the police didn't object; and no other council department seems to have objected. So why did this application get rejected?

0 comments: