Agenda item - Presentation -Pride village Party and Brighton and Hove Pride

Jayne Babb, Operations Manager for Pride, will give a presentation outlining the arrangements which are being put into place for the 2019 Pride Festival which includes the Pride Village Party in Kemptown.

Following the presentation Members will have the opportunity to ask questions before moving on to consider the remaining items of business on the agenda.

6.1       Jayne Babb, Operations Manager for “Pride” gave a presentation outlining the arrangements which had been put into place and were now well advanced for the “Pride Festival 2019” which included the “Village” in St James’s Street and Kemptown.

6.2       Ms Babb explained that based on the experience of previous years arrangements were in place with partners in order to manage the movement of the large number of people expected around the city safely and to facilitate the clearance of waste particularly from Preston Park and to return these areas to public use as soon as possible after the Pride weekend. The event had become a year round campaign working in concert with local retailers, restaurants, hotels and other businesses which promoted the Brighton retail and hospitality economy. Those businesses who benefitted from the weekend £20.5m  was spent over Pride weekend had been encouraged to support the City Angels campaign which was being launched this year.

6.3       For 2019 a reusable cup scheme was being introduced in Preston Park, the Pleasure Gardens and PVP sites. The aim of this scheme was to reduce the volume of single use plastic deriving from the festival bars. Bottled water for sale to festival goers was also to be replaced by Aquapak cartons in order to seek to reduce the use of single use plastic and all plastic bottles would be replaced by cans at all bars and concessions. Mixed recycling bins would be provided at Pride in the Park for the first time, with bins clearly labelled separate bins provided for mixed waste with a team of volunteers stationed at each pod to ensure that festival goers separated their waste accordingly.

6.4       Councillor West was pleased to note the robust arrangements which had been put into place stating that problems of waste and anti-social behaviour had on occasion given rise to criticism of what was an important community event. He asked how the message about use the sustainability arrangements being put into place was going to be conveyed and it was explained that in addition to information provided in the Pride brochures and other literature information would be posted at key locations around the park and messages would be placed on screen throughout the weekend.

6.5       Councillor Wares sought confirmation regarding “clear-up” arrangements following the weekend and it was confirmed that these would be put into place immediately at the conclusion of each event.

6.6       In answer to questions by Councillor Ebel in relation to use of the reusable cups it was confirmed that that the would be collected, cleaned and stored for use in future years.

6.7       Councillor Henry noted the arrangements which had been put into place stating that it was pleasing to note that they had been improved upon year on year and had been instrumental in shaping this weekend event into the great community event which it  had become.

6.8       The Chair, Councillor O’Quinn thanked Ms Babb for her comprehensive and informative presentation.

6.9       RESOLVED - That the contents of the presentation be received and noted.