ORGANISERS are being advised to seek advice before putting on events following traffic problems in Tendring.

Tendring Council said there are hundreds of events staged around the district every year and most go off without a hitch But event organisers are being urged by the authority and the emergency services to seek valuable safety and management advice to ensure all eventualities are covered.

Together they run a Safety Advisory Group which meets when necessary with organisers of the events with more than 500 people attending to ensure a proper plan is in place.

Lynda McWilliams, councillor responsible for for leisure and partnerships at Tendring Council, said: “This is not about the council and police playing Big Brother and saying what can and can’t take place in Tendring.

“It is aimed at helping event organisers to cover all the bases – crowd control, traffic management, parking, safety and other issues - to make sure everyone has a good time.

“We want all events in our area to be successful and discussing them with the group can be a big help to anyone.

“Everyone should have an event plan so that if anything does go wrong they are able to show that all the necessary steps and precautions had been taken in advance.”

Event plans are drawn up for all council-run events and those held on council land, but events planned for private land do not.

Safety Advisory Groups were first established after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 but the principle of keeping the public safe also applies to smaller scale events.

Acting Chief Insp Darren Deex, of Essex Police, said it is also important the emergency services are aware of events taking place and how many people are likely to turn up.

“We can build this into our own planning for a day and then know if there is an event in the district that we might need to attend,” he said.

“At the current time particularly, security around larger events is also an important issue to take into consideration and we can give specialist advice in that area.

“It is better to be safe than sorry afterwards.”

The Safety Advisory Group meets to discuss larger events but if anyone is unsure whether their event applies they should contact John Fox on 01255 686746 for further advice and information.