Office to rent in Lewes

Lewes Forum thread

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James MacCleary sounded mature & reasonable ...

On 12 Feb 2013 at 10:50am Plain Jane wrote:

... on the radio this morning.
Well relatively.
Now that's a real achievement Cllr. Page.

On 12 Feb 2013 at 3:24pm Sylvia wrote:

From his Sussex Express writings, I expected more from LDC Leader Page, but he sounded like someone caught on the hop and bumbling.
Sounded to me that the impact on Lewes residents of the rock concert was of no interest to James Page cos he hadn't spoken to others about it at all. Bonfire night takes a year to plan and a whole weekend rock event can be done in 5 months, really?!

On 12 Feb 2013 at 3:43pm Ed Can Do wrote:

To be fair, Bonfire night is a lot more dangerous than a couple of folk bands playing over a weekend, plus it takes up the whole town, not just one out of the way field. Also the people who organise Bonfire night have proper jobs the rest of the time whereas the people organising the gig would have little else to concentrate on so you're not really comparing like with like. The actual organisation of a gig like this is pretty straight forward to be honest. You hire a stage and some people to put it up, hire some toilets, get some security then apply for a licence to put it on. The council should look at previoius events of a similar nature that have happened there, realise there were no issues whatsoever in the past and approve it. Job done.

On 13 Feb 2013 at 9:52pm Chuck wrote:

But the Council won't be organising it, they'll just be licensing the event and renting out the field. What could go wrong?

On 14 Feb 2013 at 2:17pm brixtonbelle wrote:

Who is James MacCleary ?
I wouldn't worry about the organistaion of the event itself - it is part of a tour and the people who promote these things are well used to every eventuality - they are professionals. They will come to Lewes, set up the whole event, probably like clockwork, and then leave. There are thousands of gigs like this every year in the 'festival' season.
However if our councils have anything to do with it, I suspect it will be to organise adequate parking and clearing up the site/ town afterwards, and that is something I would be worried about. Security and access to the area around the site will probably be restricted during the weekend, and expect Mountfiled Road, possibly part of Priory St and Station area to be closed off.
I'm sure Lewes can handle it and I hope it sets a precedent for more events like this.

On 14 Feb 2013 at 2:29pm someone else wrote:

BB - have you ever had professional contact with the kind of people who organise festivals / tours??!

The particular issue is that this is a one-off and the band / organisers aren't planning to come back soon, so they're not under any incentive to leave on good terms. Not saying that this event shouldn't go ahead, but LDC should be under no illusions as to the amount of crap which will get left on the site and in surrounding streets, and they should ensure that the organisers pay a substantial deposit against cleaning costs. I'm assuming the camping provision will be on the sports pitches on Ham Lane? Expect broken glass, BBQ pits etc etc.

On 15 Feb 2013 at 2:23pm brixtonbelle wrote:

Yes, someone else, I have - many years ago I used to organise and promote gigs. Have to say that gigs are far more professionally run now than they were then and event management is big business. I'm sure the responsibility and expense for clean-up etc will be properly negotiated and hopefully enshrined contractually by LDC. I would also hope that LDC uses it as an opportunity to prioritise local business rather than handing out licences to out of town rubbish burger stalls as they do on bonfire night.