Plans throttled by red tape (From Barry And District News)

Plans throttled by red tape

BARRY residents have hit out at Vale of Glamorgan Council claims that apathy is ruining the Queen's Jubilee celebrations.

Locals from Malborough Close say they are desperate to celebrate in June but the local authority's red tape is holding them back.

Keen to give the children a day to remember the Cadoxton group got together to plan the big day. But soon found themselves battling a number of restrictions and rules.

Mother-of-four Sheree James told the News: "We have a little residents group called the Marlborough Marvels. Every year, we arrange day trips and activities during holidays and at Halloween.

"But when we wrote to the council asking if we could hold a street party, we had a letter back with 23 different rules and regulations."

The cost of insuring a public event is the biggest threat to the amateur street party, the home-owners claim.

To hold an event from 2 to 8pm, the organisers need insurance cover of up to £5 million. The premium could be anywhere between £350 and £1,000.

The Marlborough Marvels secretary added: "There are only 26 houses in the whole street. I can't see us raising the amount of money needed for insurance, let alone for anything else needed."

On top of the insurance, any street party committee needs to hire road signs and make sure access is correctly measured to allow for emergency vehicles among other things.

Sheree said: "I can see why these rules are needed up to a point. But it comes to something when they even want us to arrange things like traffic diversions - after all we are only a cul-de-sac. We're still going ahead. But we'll have to find a legal way of getting around it."

A Vale of Glamorgan Council spokesman said: "We will be looking to give helpful advice and guidance on a range of issues in the next couple of weeks."

* Are you trying to hold a big bash in June but experiencing problems? Contact Jessica Hinton at the News on 733456.