Are you planning to hold a demonstration, parade or sporting, social or entertainment event?

If the answer is yes, you may require the closure of a road. This page will provide you with the background information you will need to be aware of in order to submit an application to the Street Works team.

For information on street parties, please take a look at our street parties and fetes page. For more general information on planning an event, please take a look at our planning an event page.

You can apply by:

• Completing the online form on this page, or
• Completing and emailing us a downloadable version of the application form attached to this page

Guidance for completing your application is available on the form. However, if you have any further queries, our Customer Services team will be happy to help. They can be contacted by telephone or email.

Guidance and advice for persons organising events within the public highway - general

Before an event is organised within the public highway, you're advised to contact West Mercia Police Headquarters, Hindlip Hall, Worcester (telephone: 0300 333 3000) and the council's Events Planning Officer.

Safety on the highway

Roads affected by the event should be identified and advice taken with regard to road safety. In most cases where the event will affect traffic movement, a temporary road closure order is required, and the attached form should be completed and sent to the highway authority giving plenty of notice, ideally about two months before the event. If a road is to be closed, a suitable diversion route for vehicles must be signed correctly - advice can be sought from the Events Planning Officer. The signing of the diversion and road closure can be carried out by one of the many traffic management companies listed in the phone book. Again, advice will be given by the council's Events Planning Officer.

An assessment of the risks involved in holding the event on the public highway should be carried out, identifying all possible hazards and precautions to be taken to ensure the safety of all persons attending, including stewards, helpers, members of the public etc. A written copy of this assessment should be attached to the road closure application. If outside contractors are to be used at your event the organiser should ensure that they have carried out their own risk assessment.

The organisers are responsible under law for the safety of all persons attending the event, including helpers, the public and paid staff.

Public liability insurance

Event organisers are advised to have public liability insurance. If external contractors are being used, the organisers must ensure that they have their own public liability insurance.

Publicity prior to the event

All types of event held within the public highway have one thing in common - they'll be outside or near someone’s property and may affect their enjoyment of that property or their access to and from it. This should be borne in mind when organising an event within the highway, and contact should be made with all persons likely to be affected in any way. Contact can be made via a knock on the door and chat, a card/leaflet drop to all affected properties, articles in the local press/media, or distribution of posters (but not fly posting) around the area.

In all cases, give an explanation of what the event entails, such as road closures, and a contact number of someone who is able to sort out problems satisfactorily before the event. Remember it may not just be properties in the road where the event is held that may be affected; take care to look at a map to ensure that everyone likely to be impacted upon is informed. Be a good neighbour - this is the organiser’s responsibility.

Temporary restrictions

Do you need to temporarily restrict parking for your social, sporting or entertainment event?

If so, you can apply to temporarily restrict parking in the vicinity of your event with the use of no waiting cones. For example, you may be organising a school fete and want to restrict parking surrounding the school for health and safety purposes.

Remember the emergency services

An emergency can happen at any time and may involve a premises within a closed road for an event, but not part of the event.

Some, mainly business, premises are on auto-dial to alarm receiving centres so you may not be aware that we are on our way to an automatic fire alarm in your street and need access.

As the event organiser(s), you need to be aware of this likelihood and maildrop all business, flats and homes on the affected closed roads so that they're aware of the road closure and your event.

On the day

• Ensure the road closure signs or barriers used to close the street are easily moveable to allow quick access for attending fire or other emergency services
• Consider using easily moveable wheelie bins, don't park vehicles across the street
• Don't block the road with large obstacles, such as heavy tables or large gazebos that require time to dismantle or move
• Ensure any vehicles moved out of the street, to give more room for the event, don't block access to neighbouring premises and streets
• A fire appliance will need at least a 3.5m width too pass through any obstacle or street
• Don't block or cover over fire hydrants

Fees

Placing temporary traffic orders, advertising and noticing is free for events organised by charities and public sector organisations. However, there is a cost for enforcing the cones:

• 0 - 50 cones - £50 per day.
• 50 - 100 cones - £100 per day.
• 100 - 150 cones - £150 per day.

Cones should be collected and returned to your local divisional office by appointment.

Private sector organisations should consult the application form for information on fees.

Please make sure applications are received with a minimum of 8 weeks’ notice to allow for the legal process to be followed correctly.

Online application form