Hasting council apologises for ‘confusion’ after man told he needed £10m insurance cover for Queen’s jubilee street party

Derek Edwards has been planning a street party with the other residents of his small cul-de-sac of 7 bungalows, off Parkstone Road, to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June.

He said: “We are a small community of seven properties who wanted to get into the spirit of the Queens Jubilee and join in the big jubilee lunch.

“It was disappointing to find that the council’s website makes no mention of the event nor are they publicly promoting it.”

Mr Edwards was shocked to receive a standard road closure application form with no provisions provided for the jubilee weekend.

He said: “On application for a street closure for the event I was firstly disappointed with the response and then received an emailed application for a standard road closure.

“It stated that we have to pay a fee of £75 with our application and submit an indemnity insurance policy covering us for £10 million as this is the standard form for a road closure.”

Indemnity insurance gurantees compensation or losses sustained by a policyholder, and is standard council policy for a road closure to ensure that any potential damages are covered.

However, this policy is usualy waived for street parties as the risk is low. During the Diamond Jubilee in 2012 there were no claims made with more than two million people taking part.

Mr Edwards called on the council to get into the spirit of the event and follow the example set by other councils by waiving the fee.

He said: “Other councils, for example Eastbourne, are promoting the event, have made the form simple, and waived all fees.”

Eastbourne Borough Council has removed all fees to apply for a street party road closure, with a £21 charge if entertainment, or the sale of alcohol and food, takes place after 11pm.

He added: “This is a national event which the government are promoting giving us a four day bank holiday. The council should get into the spirit of things and make it easy for people to enjoy themselves and have a street party as they are encouraged to do on the government website.

“We will go ahead with the event regardless, but hopefully the council will amend this.”

The Queen’s Platinum Jubliee will celebrate the monarch’s 70 years on the throne with a four day bank holiday weekend from June 2 to June 5.

Street parties will be taking place across the country with most council’s simplifying the process to allow residents to easily arrange them.

On the government website set up for the jubilee, local authorities are advised to “encourage these events by promoting them on your communications channels and facilitating any necessary road closures.”

Hastings Borough Council issued a statement that there would be no fees for street parties after Mr Edwards revealed his experiences.

A council spokesperson said: “We apologise for this confusion. We are not charging for street parties, but we do recommend that anyone hosting a party carries out a risk assessment to protect themselves.”

Responding to the statement, Mr Edwards said: “I think it’s our actions that have kick started a response from them.

“I hope now they will now respond by publishing the event, guidelines and a user friendly application form on the website for people to follow, we will monitor this. Incidentally I still have not had a reply to my last email from them.”

Hastings Borough Council has now released guidance on the Queen’s Jubilee, it can be found here.

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