Firework Fiesta has been cancelled for 2011 at Ferry Meadows.

As Peterborough's largest charity event has had no choice but to be cancelled, it is fitting that questions raised by people at all levels are collated and addressed to explain why the event had to be cancelled, what were the circumstances for this, and what are the alternatives. Summary at the bottom of the page.

Firework Fiesta

The Peterborough Firework Fiesta was set up to provide the people of Peterborough with a safe and organised fireworks display and bonfire event. It was in response to increasing numbers of accidents caused by fireworks and bonfiresthroughout the city and surrounding areas. It grew to become a showcase event for Peterborough, where families could bring their children to enjoy a spectacular £20,000 fireworks display. The event has an impeccable safety record over its lifetime and was superbly managed and regulated. We are proud to have organised a safe and specacular event ofver the lifetime of Firework Fiesta and proud to have contributed to a reduction in bonfire and firework related accidents in the city. We are proud to have complied with safety, environmental and wildlife regulations for more than three decades to the point where there continue to be zero reported incidents involving people and wildlife year upon year. The event has raised and incredible amount of money for charity in its history, with the organising charities becoming dependent on the event for their fundraising.

• An organised event with an impeccable safety record in its 35 years of existance.
• Peterborough's largest charity event - almost £500,000 raised for needy individuals in the city of Peterborough to date.
• One of the top 10 displays in the country.
• Over 10 months of detailed planning for each event, by a core team - every single member with many years of experience in the planning and running of this event.
• One of the defining events of the city.
• Firework Fiesta was the one and only major public event with disruption (noise and traffic) in Ferry Meadows each year.
• Up to 200 volunteers give up their time for free, and clean the Park of all litter the day after the event.

Nene Park Trust

Aims and objectives: "To provide for the recreation of the public by the provision of a park for the benefit of the inhabitants of Peterborough and visitors with the object of improving the conditions of life for such persons".

Source: www.neneparktrust.org.uk/about-us/nene-park-trust

Firework Fiesta is delighted to have helped Nene Park Trust (NPT) achieve those aims and objectives for the last 27 years the event has been hosted at Ferry Meadows. It is disappointing that somehow the exact same event cannot now meet these same objectives in 2011.

Nene Park Trust's CEO James McCulloch on resident's concerns about large events like Firework Fiesta being held at the Park:

"...But hopefully we were able to reassure them that with every event a great deal of planning goes into it to make sure that it’s tightly controlled by the Trust team, and also the event organisers, to minimise the disturbance to people who live around the Park."

Source: www.newlistener.co.uk/home/ferry-meadows-concert-venue/

Quite the endorsement of the planning and control that goes into Firework Fiesta minimising the disturbance to people who live around the park! Yet even with the Trust team "tightly controlling matters", it is disappointing that the 200 cars who parked at Ferry Meadows during the last Firework Fiesta event were deemed to be the cause of too much congestion. What woudl local residents make of the congestion problem associated with the 1900 cars parked in ferry Meadows on August 7th of this year?

Why Firework Fiesta was cancelled

There seem to be many reasons offered by Nene Park Trust. In the letter to the Firework Fiesta Chairman dated 8th September 2011, and in subsequent comments in the Evening Telegraph and on Nene Park Trust website, James McCulloch of Nene Park Trust incorrectly states that "the event has grown considerably in size" and keeps referencing "in recent years".

This is incorrect and misleading.

• The Firework Fiesta Committee can provide figures for the last 20 years to demonstrate when the event peaked.
• Nene Park Trust, by their own admission, do not know what numbers attend the event in 2010.
• What is the definition of "too big"? Nene Park Trust has never defined a limit on numbers for the Firework Fiesta Committee to meet.

To understand the reasons for their decision, here are the words of councillor Sam Dalton, one of the few members of the "Trust" who commented to the Evening Telegraph. Indeed, it is one of the defining moments of this whole affair:

"I don’t think it has happened in Peterborough, to my knowledge, but in other cities big firework displays see birds and bats fall from the sky dead due to the shock of the explosions from fireworks."

• If she does not know... then why is she making such decisions?
• She is on board of Nene Park "Trust" - But she doesn't know.
• She should ask those she speaks in public on behalf of - the answer is "none".
• No doubt she is consistent in what she doesn't think has happened, and there are no fireworks displays in her ward.

"I cringe watching fireworks go up so close to wildlife’s natural habitat so I am pleased that the wildlife at Nene Park has been saved from Firework Fiesta this year, but I am disappointed for the families in the city."

That's a very interesting statement. What wildlife needs "saving" from the Firework Fiesta? Could it be that the Nene Park Trust have been allowing wildlife to be terrorised at Ferry Meadows for the last 27 years? Whatever must she make of the conduct of the Trust - she sits on the board - now that they will be conducting far more events at up to 5,000 people at a time? If wildlife was a consideration, then why is Nene Park Trust not reducing the number of large events on a fixed area of land instead of increasing them?

"With our carbon footprint to consider, I would much rather see a smaller event somewhere in the city away from nature reserves."

Carbon footprint to consider?!?! That will be why James McCulloch speaks about proposed helicopter rides in Ferry Meadows? (Article in The New Listener - 6th July 2010) Perhaps she ought to consider the carbon footprint of this kind of proposal she and her board have sanctioned. Then again, she has form for not knowing if this kind of thing happens in Peterborough.

Source: The Evening Telegraph - Councillor and Nene Park Trust board member Sam Dalton

Nene Park Trust and the Licence to hold large events

Nene Park Trust used the success of the Firework Fiesta event at Ferry Meadows for 27 years in their presentation to Peterborough City Council for a licence to hold their own events for up to 5,000 people. Firework Fiesta was central to the presentation in demonstrating the success of large events held in Ferry Meadows each year. No concerns about Firework Fiesta traffic congestion were raised by NPT to the council during these presentations.

Nene Park Trust: "Nene Park currently hosts a wide range of events and activities throughout the year, run both directly by the Trust and by other organisations. We believe there is potential to accommodate additional and larger events, particularly at Ferry Meadows, without compromising other aspects of the Park and its landscape.

Source (page 10; you may wish to read Page 18 as well): http://www.neneparktrust.org.uk/media/1253/2020 Nene Park Trust 2010 year strategy.pdf

The Firework Fiesta event held on their premises for the last 27 years and central to their presentation to the council to help them meet the 10 year plan appears nowhere in this document.

Firework Fiesta and the Traffic Management Plan

James McCulloch: "We have been raising concerns way back to 1996 and there just comes a point where you realise you cannot sort certain things out to get people on and off safely and efficiently in the dark.

I have to say that no problems with traffic management have occurred at the event in the past...

The fact that nothing has happened in the past is excellent..."

Source: The Evening Telegraph - Ferry Meadows will never again host the Firework Fiesta

James McCulloch could at least be consistent on his appraisal of the traffic management of the event. There either is a problem with traffic management or there is not. He does go on to emphasise that the success of the past is no guarantee of the future. Perhaps he is lucky his employers didn't have the same mindset when interviewing him for his current position and may wish to bear this thinking in mind at his next appraisal!

In 1996 there were two lanes of cars entering Ham Lane and up to 2,000 cars parking on Oak Meadow. Traffic used to back up onto the A1 in some years. By 2010, A single lane of a restricted number of cars were entering Ham Lane to park on Oak Meadow. At least one member of Nene Park Trust senior staff has attended each of the (approx) 8 Firework Fiesta Committee meetings each calendar year - they have been integral to the planning of the event and have led the way in many successful changes for the betterment of the event. Each year the Committee would hire lighting towers for the event. Addressing NPT concerns, it was proposed that the Committee would invest large sums of money in buying suitable lighting towers and whatever equipment was necessary for 2011.

Numbers of people attending Firework Fiesta

At several Committee meetings, Nene Park Trust stressed the importance of accurate data for numbers of people attending Firework Fiesta - insisting that the Committee's proposal of one car equaling 5 people was not acceptable.

Firework Fiesta Committee Meeting: 14th March 2011 - Nene Park Trust again asked for accurate counting of numbers attending. On 31st March 2011 a formal method detailing how numbers attending the event would be finalised was drafted by a Committee member. This included advance ticket sales, ticket sales on the night, train tickets, complimentary tickets etc.

Visitor Counters were installed in Ferry Meadows in 2010 according to James McCulloch on Page 2 of the Autumn/Winter edition of Parklife magazine. He states that over 1 million people visit Ferry Meadows every year. We assume the number of people who attended Firework Fiesta 2010 is available from the visitor counter data held by the Park and is included in this 1 million, given their interest in accurate numbers.

Source: Autumn/Winter edition of Parklife magazine 2011

Not once in any discussion about the numbers attending Firework Fiesta did Nene Park Trust inform the Committee that they had installed visitor counters at Ferry Meadows. This would have helped the Committee meet the requirement of Nene Park Trust on accurate numbers of people entering the Park. To date, it is not known to the Committee if the visitor counters are able to count the number of people in a car.

Summary

• Nene Park Trust used the successful hosting of Firework Fiesta as part of their presentation to the Council for a extended events licence, whilst declaring this year that the Firework Fiesta event will never again be hosted at Ferry Meadows.


• Nene Park Trust insist that the event has outgrown the size that can be comfortably contained in the park for a nighttime event. At no point did Nene Park Trust inform the Firework Fiesta Committee that the size of the event was an issue nor suggest that it would need to be made a smaller event. Nene Park Trust retrospectively claim it is "too big". None of the minutes of any Committee meetings detail Nene Park's guidance of what is "too big for the park" nor have they suggested a limit on numbers. Every year, the Firework Fiesta Committee sign forms provided by Nene Park Trust in order to be granted permission to hold the event at Ferry Meadows. These forms contain an estimate of numbers. Nene Park Trust have never indicated these numbers (ten to fifteen thousand) to be a problem and have granted the Committee permission to hold the event based upon these numbers year after year.


• Nene Park Trust did not grant permission to the Committee to hold Firework Fiesta 2011 on their premises stating that the Committee were unable to meet their requirements. There was no requirement to limit numbers of people attending. There was no requirement to try not to blast birds and bats out of the sky. There was no requirement to stop cars entering Ham Lane. There was no outstanding requirement for anything other than to have a Traffic Management Plan delivered to them by end of August.


• Nene Park Trust do not prepare Traffic Management plans for a living. Nene Park Trust reviewed the Committee's third and final version of their Traffic Management Plan on 12th September "...based on a brief analysis, this was not of a sufficient depth or quality". A brief analysis - on such a crucial deadline and document?!?!? It is difficult to meet requirements when your continued efforts continue to be rejected with nothing more than "not good enough". Interestingly enough, the third and final version of this Traffic Management Plan was good enough for the Council and for an independent professional company paid to review the plan in order to find fault with it.


• Congestion on Ham Lane: for the last 10 years the majority of cars have parked off site thanks to the generosity of local businesses and a request from Nene Park Trust to address the issue of over 1,500 cars parking in Oak Meadow. The Firework Fiesta Committee reduced the congestion of two lanes of cars down Ham Lane to a single managed steam of a few hundred. It is regrettable that Nene Park Trust did not extend the same opportunity to the Committee on this occasion. It is even more interesting that the Police deployed at the bottom of Ham Lane over the last few years have not expressed a single concern on the night as they witnessed the experienced stewarding of cars and pedestrians. It is still not known when congestion became an issue for Nene Park Trust given that less cars used Ham Lane in 2010 than 2009. Perhaps their figures could demonstrate the extent of the problem - the Committee certainly have not been presented with any.


• Nene Park Trust is a registered charity, which states "To provide for the recreation of the public by the provision of a park for the benefit of the inhabitants of Peterborough and visitors with the object of improving the conditions of life for such persons". Organised bonfire and fireworks events improve the conditions of life for people by contributing to the reduction in fireworks related accidents, and by showcasing such an event in the wonderful surroundings of Ferry Meadows against the reflections of the water between the fireworks and the spectators. We know of the 15,000 people who have attended the event in years gone by.... but what of the improvement in the lives of hundreds of people who have benefited due to the £500,000 raised through Firework Fiesta? By stating that the event will never again be hosted at Ferry Meadows, Nene Park Trust has ripped up the opportunity to help improve the conditions of life for people, some of whom cannot even get to the park.


• According to BPA experts, Ferry Meadows is the most suitable venue in Peterborough when all factors are taken into consideration. The Firework Fiesta Committee also feel Ferry Meadows is the most suitable venue to host a bonfire and fireworks event safely whilst achieving its aims of helping reduce the number of associated accidents, whilst raising the most amount of money possible for charity.


• The principal organisers of the event, Rotary and Round Table, have seen their charity income from Firework Fiesta obliterated for this year. Many other clubs and charity organisations will suffer, with many depending on Firework Fiesta as their principal fundraising event. Nene Park Trust will be holding more of their own events and charging entrance fees on occasions.

All material on this page represents material obtained from the public domain, and any views expressed on this page are not endorsed by the Firework Fiesta Committee.