Clitheroe bonfire protesters force safety rethink

Clitheroe bonfire protesters force safety rethink Clitheroe bonfire protesters force safety rethink

A PROTEST march by scores of people through the centre of Clitheroe last night has forced a review of the cancellation of the town’s annual bonfire.

Carrying banners and placards, and chanting, “save our bonfire”, 70 men, women and children gathered at Clitheroe Castle before travelling en masse to the town hall in time for the full Ribble Valley council meeting.

The aim of the protest was to remove the Event Safety Advisory Group (ESAG), which the group claims has placed ‘unreasonable demands’ on the event’s organisers, leading them to quit.

Bonfire committee chairman Richard Dugdale addressed the councillors. He said: “We felt we could no longer work with a group that was working against us.”

He refuted ESAG claims that several health and safety iss-ues occured at last years event, and said the bonfire committee were being “bullied”.

Campaigner Lucy Hatherell said she didn’t think ESAG was fit for purpose.

She told councillors: “ESAG’s role is to advise and support event organisers but it seems they are intent on stopping events happening.”

She pointed out that ESAG did not produce minutes for the public from meetings, and it was not clear who sat on the board.

Leader of the opposition, Coun Allan Knox, said that community bonfires were “by far and away the safest way of marking November 5”.

He said: “After an event organisers may be tired, but they should never be saying “I’m never going to do that again” because of ESAG.

“Surely it is the role of this council to be advising, and assisting in a constructive helpful and timely manner — not being the organisation that is, rightly or wrongly, seen to be the villain of the piece.”

He said: “It is important to remember that ESAG is an advisory body — not a statutory one.

“Therefore at no time should it be dictating people what they should or should not do. The only people who can do that are those who have statutory powers.”

A motion calling on the council’s chief executive, along with councillors from all parties to review ESAG’s policies, constitution and procedures was passed unanimously by full council.

Comments(11)

Happy Soul says...
3:08pm Wed 10 Oct 12

What a joke!! If there were more organised bonfires like the one held in Clitheroe each year, perhaps the public would not have to resort to making their own and needing to call out the emergency services when something goes wrong. Health and safety has gone mad! We will all need permission to breathe shortly. Will we be declined this due to health and safety reasons, i.e. if we breathe, someone might catch our germs!!

prince of darkness says...
3:54pm Wed 10 Oct 12

Happy Soul wrote:
What a joke!! If there were more organised bonfires like the one held in Clitheroe each year, perhaps the public would not have to resort to making their own and needing to call out the emergency services when something goes wrong. Health and safety has gone mad! We will all need permission to breathe shortly. Will we be declined this due to health and safety reasons, i.e. if we breathe, someone might catch our germs!!
Well said let’s get bonfires organised, are a fund raiser if done right. It’s not the fireworks that cause the problem it’s the miss use of them. I all the guidelines are followed they are safe. However early sales causes other problems. Thought bangers and the like had been banned, however I’ve heard them of late. These can cause major damage if they are thrown or misused. An organised bonfire also prevents animals becoming distressed; I am in favour of organised venues.

shytalk says...
4:23pm Wed 10 Oct 12

Sadly people in Clitheroe expect nothing more than stupidity these days from the council..This is just an example

midas says...
4:46pm Wed 10 Oct 12

70 people! Take out the friends and family of the organisers and yu have how many others??

nonjob says...
5:03pm Wed 10 Oct 12

ESAG!!

Absolutely hilarious.

Another bunch of non-job, paper-shuffling, box-ticking, parasites, busy trying to justify their worthless existences at the tax payers' expense.

Does anyone remember when people used to simply use their common sense and there was no need for nonsense like "ESAG?"

w w w.nonjob.tumblr.com

nonjob says...
5:13pm Wed 10 Oct 12

Sign the petition against these idiots.

http://w w w.petitiononline.co.
uk/petition/scrap-ri
bble-valley-borough-
council-s-event-safe
ty-advisory-group/53
01

vanmanstan says...
5:56pm Wed 10 Oct 12

the power goes straight to some peoples head. they are on some tin pot committee and think they are ruling the country, but thats the type of people these organisations attract.

Good call says...
7:04pm Wed 10 Oct 12

prince of darkness wrote:
Happy Soul wrote:
What a joke!! If there were more organised bonfires like the one held in Clitheroe each year, perhaps the public would not have to resort to making their own and needing to call out the emergency services when something goes wrong. Health and safety has gone mad! We will all need permission to breathe shortly. Will we be declined this due to health and safety reasons, i.e. if we breathe, someone might catch our germs!!
Well said let’s get bonfires organised, are a fund raiser if done right. It’s not the fireworks that cause the problem it’s the miss use of them. I all the guidelines are followed they are safe. However early sales causes other problems. Thought bangers and the like had been banned, however I’ve heard them of late. These can cause major damage if they are thrown or misused. An organised bonfire also prevents animals becoming distressed; I am in favour of organised venues.
I'm in favour of people being allowed to choose what they want.If they want to let off fireworks in their garden, let them if they want to go to an organised event, let them.

AnthonyUK says...
8:57pm Wed 10 Oct 12

Why should responsible people who use fireworks properly to entertain family and friends have that right to enjoy fireworks safely at home taken away by organised events only? A ban will only push trade/sale of fireworks underground to an illegal blackmarket that cannot be easily regulated prevented or stopped. Also the fireworks that these illegal traders would flog probably wont comply to any product safety standards and could injure burn blind kill or maim or scar the user if they malfunction or go wrong in use or injure spectators. British Standard 7114 compliant fireworks in accordance with their instructiond used properly do not, as a rule, in general cause problems/injuries. Only misuse and abuse of them does.

happycyclist says...
10:33am Thu 11 Oct 12

AnthonyUK wrote:
Why should responsible people who use fireworks properly to entertain family and friends have that right to enjoy fireworks safely at home taken away by organised events only? A ban will only push trade/sale of fireworks underground to an illegal blackmarket that cannot be easily regulated prevented or stopped. Also the fireworks that these illegal traders would flog probably wont comply to any product safety standards and could injure burn blind kill or maim or scar the user if they malfunction or go wrong in use or injure spectators. British Standard 7114 compliant fireworks in accordance with their instructiond used properly do not, as a rule, in general cause problems/injuries. Only misuse and abuse of them does.
Oh heck... mention fireworks and off he goes.

AnthonyUK says...
11:17am Thu 11 Oct 12

happycyclist wrote:
AnthonyUK wrote:
Why should responsible people who use fireworks properly to entertain family and friends have that right to enjoy fireworks safely at home taken away by organised events only? A ban will only push trade/sale of fireworks underground to an illegal blackmarket that cannot be easily regulated prevented or stopped. Also the fireworks that these illegal traders would flog probably wont comply to any product safety standards and could injure burn blind kill or maim or scar the user if they malfunction or go wrong in use or injure spectators. British Standard 7114 compliant fireworks in accordance with their instructiond used properly do not, as a rule, in general cause problems/injuries. Only misuse and abuse of them does.
Oh heck... mention fireworks and off he goes.
and you dont like the truth happycyclist when it hits you either!

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