Larks in the park

IMAGINE. It's a lovely, lazy summer Sunday afternoon. You decide to stroll to the local park with your family - maybe West Bank Park in Acomb, Hull Road Park in Tang Hall, or South Bank's Rowntree Park.

When you get there, a jazz group is quietly playing Scott Joplin to an appreciative audience lounging on the grass.

In another corner of the park there is an open-air exhibition of local arts and crafts. Over near the children's play area a troupe of jugglers are entertaining an enthralled group of youngsters.

Few would argue that York could make better use of its beautiful parks and open spaces. At this time of year, they are blooming - and often quiet and almost empty.

Yes, there is the occasional event or outdoor concert, especially in the summer. But they are too few and too far between.

City of York Council is keen to change all that. It wants to encourage more community events, festivals, concerts, performances and fairs in the city's outlying public parks, bringing to them some of the buzz and vibrancy that is beginning to characterise the city centre.

"One of the things people like about the city centre is the fact that there is always a really nice buzz there," says Gill Cooper, the city council's head of arts and culture.

"There are performers, musicians, jugglers. What if you could see such things in the parks, so you could come across events there that are just wonderful?

"If people would like to listen to Dvorak or some jazz or see amazing jugglers in local parks, we would like to try to be as encouraging as possible."

The problem of staging events in York's local parks, however, has always been balancing entertainment with the need not to disturb local people.

There is a difference between an afternoon of quiet, open-air jazz or folk music - or even a brass band recital - and a full-on rock concert with amplified sound blasting out across neighbouring streets. Just how easy it is to annoy neighbours was proved by last year's successful Peace Festival in Rowntree Park. Concerts had been organised for both afternoons of the two-day festival: and the city council had been meticulous about warning people living near the park about when they were going to be held.

What they forgot to do was warn locals the concert organisers would need to run sound checks before the concerts actually started. It was these sound-checks that prompted complaints: because residents hadn't been prepared for them.

The council has put its hands up to that. "It was our fault!" admits Gill. "Not the peace festival's fault!"

Now, to try to ensure that kind of thing doesn't happen again, the city council is introducing new guidelines for staging of events in city parks.

Its "event protocol for local parks and open spaces", which is expected to be approved next week, will set out what type of events are appropriate for York's parks and open spaces, which areas should be avoided, starting and finishing times and when any sound checks can be carried out.

The aim of the protocol is twofold, explains Gill. One is to encourage more use to be made of the city's parks. By giving clearer guidelines about staging an event, it is hoped that more people will come forward to put on events in parks and open spaces outside the city centre. "There is a myth going around that it is quite difficult to organise events in York," she says. "It is not!"

The second key aim is to minimise disruption to local people. The new protocol makes clear that there should be no more than four music events involving "professional sound systems" in any one park in any one year.

It also stipulates that event organisers should consult with the council at least 28 days before the event on the positioning of the stage and speakers.

Concerts will have to finish at least half an hour before a park closes - or, if it is taking place in an open space where it is not possible to lock up, at least half an hour before 'dusk'.

Clearing up afterwards should take place the following day, if it is likely to be noisy.

The protocol also commits the council to giving local people much better warning of exactly when and where events are to be held.

Information will have to be displayed on local community noticeboards, in libraries and published in relevant ward newsletters.

"It will be about working out a way of letting people know that things are going on, so if somebody absolutely hates rock music, for example, they have the chance of deciding 'I'm going shopping in Leeds that day!" says Gill.

It sounds good and if it does result in more properly-managed concerts, fairs, festivals and community events being staged in the city's parks it has to be good news.

However well-intentioned the idea, however, there are those who have concerns about the new protocol.

The main worry is that it makes no distinction between any of the parks and open spaces controlled by the city council.

These include city parks such as West Bank, Hull Road and Rowntree - but also outlying parks such as the Rawcliffe Bar Country Park and nature reserves such as Hob Moor and Clifton Backies.

Opponents fear that by adopting a "one size fits all" protocol, the council will be encouraging organisers to stage events like pop concerts on open spaces such as nature reserves where they would be inappropriate. Richard Moore, chairman of Rawcliffe Parish Council which is fiercely opposed to the protocol, said a cornfield buffer zone had been set up around the Rawcliffe Bar Country Park, to protect rare ground-nesting birds and other endangered species, including up to 11 species of rare beetle.

"If you get lots of people tramping around in there some of them are going to end up in there (the cornfield buffer zone) and endanger the wildlife and the ecological balance," he says.

The parish council is also worried about noise, the effect on the nearby Rawcliffe Meadows, and the possibility of travellers invading the site after an event.

It feels the protocol should have been more specific: detailing the kinds of event appropriate for each of the city's parks and nature reserves, rather than giving a general list of events that were suitable.

Rawcliffe Parish Council is not the only organisation to have such concerns. Elizabeth Smith, chairman of the Friends Of Hob Moor, agrees that it would be good to attract more people to the nature reserve - within limits. But more events such as the Hob Moor Celebration Day, which includes stalls, and talks about the history of the moor and its wildlife, would be one thing. A rock concert would be quite another.

"The key word is appropriate," she says. "There is obviously a very clear difference in the types of sites that we are talking about."

Alison Sinclair Of The Friends Of Rowntree Park has a different concern. She is cross at what she sees as a lack of consultation on the new protocol.

Yes, friends' groups, community associations and parish councils were contacted, she says.

But ordinary people living near to parks were not. She feels they should have had more of a say in drawing-up of protocol.

She is also worried at seeing "'private functions" identified in the protocol as appropriate events. "I would never, ever object to events in parks, but they should be genuine community events, not private functions," she says.

Coun Keith Orrell, the council's executive member for leisure and heritage, stresses that the protocol is designed to build in more safeguards over the good management of events, not fewer.

He does not believe that detailing the type of events which would be appropriate for each park or nature reserve individually would be practicable. But he admits the protocol may need fine-tuning.

Anyone wishing to stage an event must apply to the council in advance, he points out: but he would like the protocol to make clear that any interested organisations such as friends groups or parish councils will be consulted over any application to stage an event in their area.

The protocol itself will be reviewed after a year, he says, to see whether it is working and whether any adjustments need to be made. But the aim is positive: to make York a more interesting place.

"We want York to be as event-full as possible, but we want to do that without causing undue stress or noise or whatever to local residents," he says.

It is difficult to argue with that as a mission statement.

Your easy guide to park events rules

Parks and open spaces which will be covered by the protocol:

Bachelor Hill

Clifton Backies

Hob Moor

Glen Gardens

Hull Road Park

Rawcliffe Country Park

Rowntree Park

West Bank Park

Not covered:

Museum Gardens

St Nicholas Fields

Events considered appropriate under the protocol:

Spring/summer fetes and fairs

Organised children's activities such as treasure hunts, craft workshops and play schemes

Small pop/rock concerts

Brass bands

Classical concerts

Theatre and dance

Festivals

Sports events such as fun runs

uPrivate functions such as namings

Key guidelines:

Not more than four concerts using professional sound systems in any one park in any year

Events to have a set start and finish time, and a set time for sound checks

Where sound systems are used, organisers to discuss position of stage and speakers with environmental protection officers 28 days in advance

Events to finish 30 minutes before closure of park, or 30 minutes before dusk

Council to ensure events do not take place on areas set aside for wildlife, or which are of sporting or heritage value

Updated: 10:30 Tuesday, May 10, 2005