Dear Sir or Madam,

Please provide the following:

1) a copy of the minutes of the meetings when the decision was made
to hold Cliffhanger in Millhouses Park in 2008.

2) a copy of the strategy to ensure local residents and businesses
do not suffer congestion and overspill parking on our residential
roads, streets and avenues.

3) a statement detailing the reason that no area of Millhouses Park
will be free entry during the Cliffhanger weekend.

4) a copy of the strategy to ensure at the end of each day visitors
to Cliffhanger will leave in a quiet and orderly manner and not
cause disturbance to local residents and businesses.

Yours faithfully,

Catherine McKeown

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Dear Catherine,

Thank you for your request for information regarding the staging of our Cliffhanger event at Millhouses Park. I will respond to your question in the order in which you raised them.

1) The decision to hold Cliffhanger in Millhouses Park for 2008 rather than Graves Park as it had been previously was made by Mary Bagley under delegated authority. This decision was made on the 13th December 2007.

2) As with all major events it is impossible to ensure that no congestion or parking difficulties will occur locally, as a result the document you ask for does not exist. However, the events team have many years experience of managing such events and have produced a Traffic Management Plan to minimise the impact of the increase in visitors to the park over the two days of the event. This plan was detailed at the recent Licensing Board hearing and is attached to this e-mail. This plan will be updated as preparations for the event progress and will advice will continually be sought from Sheffield City Council's Highways Department.

<<Traffic Management Plan1.doc>>
3) The cricket outfield will be outside of the event area and open to the public as normal, this area is approximately 8000 m2. The event is also free for children and Ecclesall Woods is literally across the road from the event should people want access to high quality green and open space.

4) My response here is similar to that of point 2. No such strategy exists as it is impossible to ensure all visitors leave in a "quiet and orderly" manner. Millhouses is an extremely popular City Park and throughout the year regularly attracts hundreds and sometimes thousands of visitors a day. There is no strategy to ensure that these "regular" visitors leave in a quiet and orderly manner either.

Cliffhanger is a family orientated event and we expect approximately half of its visitors to be children. This event should not be compared to a football match or a pop concert where thousands of people attend at a specific time and leave all at once. Visitors will come and go at Cliffhanger over the whole day and although we hope for up to 10,000 visitors a day, experience of this type of event suggests that at its absolute peak only 3,000 visitors would be present at any one time. With these points in mind we do not anticipate that visitors would leave the event in an overly loud or un-orderly manner. Clearly the event will be well stewarded and the experience of the Councils Outdoor Events Team will ensure a well planned and organised event. These considerations formed part of the Licensing Boards decision on 27th May 2008 to award a Premises Licence for Millhouses Park that was necessary for us to hold Cliffhanger at this site.

I hope this response provides you with the information you require if you have any other questions regarding the event please feel free to contact me on the number below.

Regards

Chris

Chris Heeley
Community Services Manager
Parks and Countryside
Sheffield City Council
Meersbrook Park, Brook Road
Sheffield, S8 9FL

Tel: 0114 273 4285 Fax: 0114 255 2375
[mobile number]
E-mail: [email address]

We aim to ensure that you fully understand the contents of this correspondence. We welcome any feedback you may have on how we can improve our communication with you

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Dear Chris (DEL PWC),

Thank you very much for you thoughtful response. I think
Cliffhanger will be a great success at Millhouses. I also think a
sweetener for locals might have softened their worries. From my
experience of other events a few free passes for parents of
children locally would have helped as inevitably these same parents
tend to dig deep in their pockets when attending such events.

Anyway, I hope my request has been useful in alerting decision
makers and those involved with Cliffhanger that raising public
awareness of decision processes can often halt potential
complaints.

All the best.

Catherine