Warning over royal wedding street parties

Revellers could be forced to pay hundreds of pounds to hire "traffic management companies" if they want to stage traditional street parties in celebration of Prince William's marriage to Kate Middleton.

Legislation introduced by Labour seven years ago prevents locals from blocking through roads using home-made signs and says party organisers must use professionals, say local authority officials.

Some councils are waiving road closure charges for street parties on Friday April 29 but say they have no power to by-pass Government legislation about traffic management on through roads.

Cambridgeshire County Council is one local authority which says it will not charge to close roads for royal wedding street parties.

But a nine-page online council form organisers are asked to fill in says that if parties are being held on through roads, "unqualified members of the public will not be allowed to carry out road closures on the highway (or) put out signs".

Organisers are asked: "Which traffic management company are you using to provide traffic management?"

One village party organiser said she had been given quotes "upwards of £500" to hire traffic management firms.

Cambridgeshire's Information Strategy Manager, Debbie Maith, said the council's hands were tied by the provisions of the 2004 Traffic Management Act and added: "We have done as much as we can. We have to abide by the legislation."

The council said if parties were staged in cul-de-sacs or on unadopted roads traffic management firms would not be required.

Shortly after the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition came to power in 2010, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said he had "succeeded in his quest to ban the reams of forms, high costs and red tape getting in the way of communities organising street parties".

"Fetes, street parties and fairs should be fun, and everyone's energy needs to go into the fun part - not trawling through endless reams of guidance and dusty rules," he said in August.

"I want to banish the myths around laws preventing people from putting on events."

Local Government Minister Bob Neill said today: "We have worked across government and with Streets Alive, the Big Lunch and local government partners to agree a consistent approach for councils to follow, and produce a good practice guidance for councils setting out more up front transparency on what organisers need.

"Whitehall rules aren't holding councils back. Councils now need to do their bit to cut unnecessary red tape and help foster a sense of community spirit on this national day of celebration."

Jennifer Ravenhill, who is organising a street party in Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, said villagers traditionally held street parties in the High Street but had decided to switch to an unadopted lane to avoid the cost of hiring traffic managers.

"They say organisers have to hire a traffic management company to provide the correct signs and staff the closure. Upwards of £500 for one event is the estimate I've received, making it too expensive to do in the High Street," she said.

"We're not allowed to staff it with volunteers or make our own signs and barriers as we did for the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002.

"It's a great shame because the High Street is where we've always held street parties. It's in the centre of the village and people like the idea of being in 'the road' - that's the point of a street party.

"We're only be closing the road for a maximum of four hours so the risks are not enormous."