Event planning

Planning an event can be great fun for you and your community. However, there are many elements to be considered to make your event safe and successful.

The  Lincolnshire Resilience Forum offer specialist advice through their website on Health and Safety, together with further information on planning your event in order to make sure that public safety is always a major priority. We also recommend reviewing the advice on our Safety Advisory Group page, which provides detailed safety advice and considerations when organising events.

Please remember it is the organiser's responsibility to comply with all the legal requirements relating to the event.

The LESP Event Organisers Handbook gives lots of advice and information on Risk Assessments, Health and Safety, First Aid and Evacuation Routes. It can be downloaded from the LESP website together with template documents to help plan your event, including an Event Management Plan template and Risk Assessment forms.

Early planning is the key to a successful event and it is advised to start 12 months in advance. The Organisers Handbook gives a timeline to help with the planning process as certain permissions/licences require applications being made several months ahead of your event. Here are some of the elements that should be considered:

• Temporary Event Notices for music, entertainment and alcohol
• for temporary road closures and registering events, please contact Lincolnshire County Council highways to register an event affecting the highway (opens new window)
• risk assessment
• Public Liability Insurance (minimum indemnity value of £5m for use of Council land)
• First Aid
• children and vulnerable persons
• stewards, security and marshals
• temporary structures
• barriers
• evacuation
• communications
• Fire Safety
• requirement for Police
• Food Hygiene
• environmental issues
• booking council owned land or open space
• Bouncy Castles - use of reputable companies with appropriate insurance, safety test certificates and risk assessments. See the PIPA's inflatable play equipment safety guidance (PDF, 1 MB)(opens new window).

For larger scale events, LESP may take a more active role and you may be required to attend a Safety Advisory Group meeting, where all agencies from LESP can offer support to organisers. Other useful links:

• Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website (opens new window)
• GOV.UK - organising a voluntary event, a 'can do' guide (opens new window)
• PIPA - safe bouncy castles (opens new window)
• ROSPA - bouncy castle advice (opens new window)

If you require any further help, please contact the Communities Team on 01775 761161 or email info@sholland.gov.uk.