Re: Your request for information concerning: Information, which is related
to the recent announcement of the 'Funfair' on Herrington Country park.
 
The Council aims to provide available information promptly and in any
event within 20 working days, unless, exceptionally, there is a need to
consider whether the information is exempt from disclosure.

Please note that there may be a charge for providing copies of the
information. If the cost of complying with your request in full exceeds
£450, we will ask you to reconsider your request, or to pay a fee before
the information is supplied. If a charge or fee is payable we will let you
know.

I will contact you again soon in connection with your request.

Please quote the reference below if you contact the Council regarding this
request.

Customer Request Number:  13 06 09

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Dear Mr Hedley

 

I refer to your recent request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.  I can confirm that the Council does hold this
information, as detailed below.

 

1) Please provide details of any meetings that have taken place between
Sunderland City Council and the Showmen's Guild. This should include;
a) Dates and times of meetings, length, and names of those present (from
the council). I'm happy for venue information to be redacted if
appropriate.
b) Minutes from the said meetings.

There have been no meetings between the Council and the Showman's Guild in
relation to this event. 

2) Please provide details of how much this event is worth to Sunderland
City Council, including the finer details of the agreement to lease the
park to the Showman's Guild.

The financial details of the licence agreement are confidential.  The
wider ranging economic / social benefits of the fair including visitors to
the city and benefits to the economy in terms to traders and small
businesses will be evident following the event.

 

3) Details of any environmental or risk assessments carried out with
relation to the hosting of this event  

As a prerequisite of the grant of licence the event organiser prepares an
events safety plan.  This plan is submitted to the Multi Agency Events
Group which includes various Council officers, Police, Fire Authority
together with the Ambulance Service, who fully consider the plan.  Once
the comments of the MAEG have been incorporated and the plan is in
an acceptable form, the application to hold an event can be agreed.  

 

4. Details of consultation that has taken place with, and including dates
of;
a) Councillors

As part of the process for proposed grant of a licence to occupy land the
local ward members and portfolio holder were consulted.

 

b) Residents

No formal direct public consultation was carried out with residents of the
City of Sunderland in relation to this event
5) A sample contract which would be used to form the lease of the park to
a 3rd party. This should also include;
a) Decision work flow/process.
b) Details of any restrictions.
c) Pre-requisites. 

There is no standard form of licence as this will be drafted to suit the
circumstances of the proposed event. However standard terms of any licence
will include; area of land, plan, authorised use, designated hours, event
safety plan, licence period, licensees obligations including site
remediation and indemnity cover. 

 

I hope this is satisfactory.  If, however, you are dissatisfied with our
response to your request for information, you can ask for the decision to
be reviewed in reply to this letter.  The review will be removed from the
Directorate and coordinated by the Council’s Information Governance
Officer.   A request for review should be directed, by email to
[1][Sunderland City Council request email], by post or by hand addressed to;
Information Governance Officer, Governance Services, Civic Centre, PO Box
100, Sunderland SR2 7DN.

 

You are of course entitled to apply to the Information Commissioner at any
time, although the Commissioner will not usually investigate until the
public authority’s internal review procedure has been concluded.

 

Kind regards

 

Julia Harper

Business Development Officer

Office of the Chief Executive

Sunderland City Council

Room 3.92 - Civic Centre

Sunderland

SR2 7DN

Tel: 0191 5611573 

Email: [2][email address] 

 

[3]email footer

References

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mailto:[Sunderland City Council request email]
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Mr Hedley,

I acknowledge your e mail regarding your request under the Freedom of Information Act. I can confirm that this will be now be allocated to an officer independent of the original decision to undertake a review of the original response.

The review normally takes fifteen working days, however should there be a delay you will be kept informed.

Regards

Darren Rigg
Information Governance Officer
Commercial and Corporate Services
Sunderland City Council
0191 561 1941
www.sunderland.gov.uk

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Dear Mr Hedley,

 

I have been asked to review the reply provided to you following your
request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which
requested information on the use of Herrington Park.

 

In requesting a review of the information provided you asserted that a
number of the responses you received to your initial request were general
responses and did not address the precise information you were seeking.
Having considered the response you received I agree with the point you
have made in respect of the answers provided to questions 3 and 4 as
numbered in your initial request.

 

For ease of reference I have responded to your outstanding requests in the
order raised: - 

 

“Please provide details of how much this event is worth to Sunderland City
Council, including the finer detail of the agreement to lease the Park to
the Showman’s Guild”.

                            

I am advised that no analysis has been undertaken as to the worth of the
event which took place at Herrington Park.

 

The economic or social worth of the fair which was held within Herrington
Park could only be determined in the months following an event if an
analysis was undertaken to determine this. The position therefore is that
at the current time no information is available to quantify the worth of
the event to the City Council and a response can not be given as it simply
does not exist.

 

Additionally I understand that there is no agreement in place between the
Council and the Showman’s Guild in relation to the fun fair which was held
at Herrington Park. The Showman’s Guild was not a party to any of the
arrangements which were put in place for the operation of the fun fair.
You should have been advised of this during the response to your first
request and I apologise on behalf of the Council that this was not
clarified at that stage.

 

“Please provide details of any environmental or risk assessments carried
out in relation to the hosting of this event. “

 

I understand that the following risk assessments were submitted to the
Council’s Multi Agency Events Group as part of the event safety plan in
respect of this event: -

 

 

-          Cover fencing

-          Cover fencing portable toilet

-          Catering – food poisoning, fire/explosion, litter/broken glass

-          Crowd control – general crowd crush, topography of site

-          Fencing – heras fencing collapse, crowd barriers trip over feet

-          Fire – general, living vans

-          Attractions / Amusements – ride malfunction / accident

-          Injury / accident / illness

-          Lighting – site lighting,

-          Litter – broken glass/cans. Litter/refuse/elson

-          Services – electrical equipment / generator

-          Structures – wind damage collapse

-          Traffic management – exhibitor parking, emergency vehicle

-          Unforeseen occurrence – drain collapse, surface damage,
accident      damage, other, emergency evacuation plan, fire, and bomb
threat

 

Details of consultation that has taken place with Councillors.

 

I am advised that the Council’s Estate Department consulted with the Ward
Councillors and the Council’s Portfolio holder for this area with regard
to the proposals for the event via an email sent from one of the Council’s
Senior Valuation Surveyors and dated 28^th May 2013.

 

Details of consultation that has taken place with residents.

 

I have considered the response given to you following your initial request
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in light of the letter you have
provided within your most recent email.

 

I do not believe that the response you were given initially was incorrect
taking into account the content of this letter and with reference to your
initial request for information.

 

Your initial request was for “details of consultation that has taken place
with….residents”.

 

The term consultation can reasonably be regarded as being a communication
to residents before undertaking a course of action to seek further
information or views from them.

 

The letter included within your email dated 28.06.2013 is a letter to the
residents who live in the vicinity of the Park notifying them of the event
and the arrangements which were in place for the management of it. The
letter you have provided does not seek any response from those residents
nor canvass their opinion on the proposal to host the fun fair within the
park.

 

The response your were given is therefore accurate in that there was no
consultation with residents in respect of hosting the fun fair at
Herrington Park. This letter was sent simply to notify them that the Fun
Fair would be held here and the arrangements which would be in place.

 

 

Request for a sample contact which would be used to form the lease of the
park to a third party. This should include : -

 

a)     a decision or work flow process

b)    details of any restrictions

c)     Pre requisites

 

Firstly just to clarify that the only agreement in place between the
Council and the Licensee granting a right to use the Land at Herrington
Park for the purpose of the fun fair is a licence agreement. The licence
is however a form of contract and is the basis upon which the Fun Fair
operator was given a right to operate from the land.

 

I understand that the Council does not have a standard form agreement that
it issues in circumstances such as this and as outlined previously no work
flow or other standard form documentation exists and as such there is none
which can be disclosed to you.

 

The terms of these agreements (including all restrictions which should be
imposed and any pre requisite requirements) have been agreed by the
Council’s Property Services Department. The Officers involved are
qualified surveyors who have an expertise in dealing with public land.

 

The “standard terms” referred to in the response previously provided are
simply standard terms that any professional involved in the management and
letting of land would reasonably recognise they would need to consider
when looking at granting rights over the land. There is no documentation
available within the Council setting this out. It is based upon
the surveyors expertise and knowledge.

 

As you can see from the above response I therefore partly uphold your
request for a review of the Council’s response to your original request
and in respect of those matters the information is provided.

 

If this response fails to address your concerns, then you have the right
to apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision as to whether or
not the Council has complied with Freedom of Information Act requirements.

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

            Information Commissioner’s Office,

            Wycliffe House,

            Water Lane,

            Wilmslow,

            Cheshire,

            SK9 5AF.

 

            Helpline:         08456 306060

                                    01625 545745

 

            Fax:                 01625 524510

 

            Web address: [1]www.ico.go.uk

 

Regards

 

Louise McCallum
Solicitor
Commercial and Corporate Services
Sunderland City Council
Tel: 0191 561 1057
Fax: 0191 553 1020
Email@ [2][email address]
 
[3]www.sunderland.gov.uk
 

[4]Proud - Decent - Together

References

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1. http://www.ico.go.uk/
2. mailto:[email address]
mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/
http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/
4. file:///tmp/foiextract20190215-2096-1tx47rr#Map