[Reclaimmayday] Stalls update

[Jules]

Heya,

Just spoken with Richard Ambler from the council with regard to the 
market stalls provision for the May Day event.

His concerns were that the potential late finishing time of 10pm for the 
stalls collection as his staff would not want to be working that late - 
and most would be volunteers or only being paid for a couple of hours 
and it would not be fair to ask them to do so.  As the event is being 
run to commemorate International Workers' Day I could only agree with 
him on this.

He was also concerned about the fact that this was a music event and the 
stalls were being used for commercial purposes.

I let him know about the collaboration of many of Bradford's groups in 
the organisation of this event, and that the majority of the stalls 
would be utilised not for commercial purposes, but for a means by which 
community organisations could communicate with the general public of 
Bradford.  The music and food, as well as providing entertainment and 
sustenance for the general public, are the main draw to encourage 
attendance and raise funding to ensure that the event can go ahead.

I offered to provide a list of community  organisations that would be 
involved in the event, but he didn't feel that he required this 
information having spoken to me on the phone and having been reassured 
that we were not any kind of commercial organisation profiting off the 
back of the council's equipment.

He mentioned that he looked back at the records and had no records of 
this type of event last year - possibly because it was organised through 
Raise The Roof - and they were a professional organisation that the 
council trusted.

In short, there is no problem with us having the stalls for definite up 
until 6pm (and the stalls would have to be vacated and ready for removal 
at this time), however if we did want to pack up later at 10pm, we would 
have to get the consent of the Raise The Roof people to assist for him 
to be totally happy about this.

(Is it just Mr. Pizza Pieces that is wanting to stay until 10pm?  I 
can't think that any of the community organisations would want to be 
staying that late - if we can't get Raise the Roof to get involved in 
the packing down of the stalls we have to consider other options for 
those that are wanting to stay until 10pm)

Richard informed that he now worked mainly in Bingley on the Bingley 
markets and wondered whether an event such as this would work in Bingley 
next year as they have a nice little space around the arts centre, and 
he is trying to raise the profile of Bingley and bring trade there.  I 
don't think he was "just saying" as the words "far more amenable" did 
occur in the same sentence as "if you would consider the event for 
Bingley next year".  (I did inform him that it was a committee decision, 
but that he could count on me to raise the issue - consider it raised)

So...what next?

Stalls until 6pm and try to accommodate the later stalls elsewhere?

Raise the Roof involvement and stalls until 10pm?

I would need to know who the contact at Raise the Roof is, if Dusty 
can't take this on.  If RtR are involved I will need to make contact 
with Richard again in order to confirm this arrangement.


Thanks

Jules x