Brsitol City Council has backed down on its refusal to consider our application for a rally on College Green on 19 February.
A number of people have asked why we need their permission in the first place. The Council owns the assembly point, Castle Park, and manages College Green on behalf of the Dean and Chapter of Bristol Cathedral. Bristol & District Anti-Cuts Alliance is sponsored by and has affiliations from trade union branches and a number of community organisations. We have a duty of care towards the members of these bodies to ensure a safe off-road assembly and dispersal point for any demonstration. We aslo need public liability insurance otherwise our sponsors and affiliates could become liable for any damages claim against us. Our trade union sponsors need to closely protect their funds: they need every penny of them to fight the coming battles against redundancy and privatisation.
If you put a stage and sound system on College Green it becomes an event and the Council’s Events Policy applies. This requires six weeks notice, insurance, a £500 bond, risk assessment and all sorts of other health and safety measures. It is also difficult to hire sound and other equipment for College Green without an events licence because of insurance.
On our demonstration in October, we submitted detailed plans, including a traffic management plan, and got a licence even though the application went in four weeks before the event. The Council and the police said the demo was well-organised.
We met Cllr Barbara Janke, Leader of the City Council, after the trouble with the police in October. We put to her that six weeks notice for a political demonstration was unreasonable and she agreed.
The Open Meeting of the Alliance on 13 January decided on another demonstration and rally for 19 February, the Saturday before Bristol City Council sets its cuts budget, which will have exactly the same arrangements as the October one. When we telephoned the Events Office of the Council to notify them that a licence application was on its way we were told categorically that it was too late and the application could not be considered.
The effluent then hit the atmospheric circulatory mechanism and as a result, we were told by a Council officer yesterday that there had been a “misunderstanding”. We will now get a licence.
The police, in contrast, seem relaxed about it all even though there is a university rag procession on the same day but we have a meeting with them and who knows what they will come up with.
The demonstration and rally would have gone ahead with or without a licence. We cannot accept even more limitations on the right of assembly of the citizens of Bristol before the seat of their local government, the Council House. However, we prefer to do things properly.
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