The Royal Wedding may signal the end of the road for street parties in Britain, as a study finds only one in three councils has received applications to host a bash to celebrate the nuptials.
Freedom of Information responses were obtained from over 100 local authorities across the UK last month by Republic, the campaign group for an elected head of state.
According to the study, three quarters of all local authorities have received five or less applications from communities planning a traditional-style party on 29 April.
The average number of street party applications for each authority was 4.6 while Kent County Council had the highest number recorded with 54.
Altogether, councils across Britain have reported a modest 4,000 applications for road closures on 29 April.
There appears to be somewhat of a divide between north and south, with fewer applications being submitted to northern councils.
Twelve of the northern councils have not registered to host a party at all while other areas such as Blackpool, Bolton and Leicester have only made one application. Comparatively, Bristol has clocked up 53 applications.
There have been just 110 or so approved in the whole of Wales. Cardiff is leading the pack with 35 applications.
Campaign manager for Republic, Graham Smith, said the results came as no surprise.
“There is no longer a great deal of interest in the Royal Family. We did a poll as well and 90 per cent of people couldn’t care less. And that reflects that pattern,” Mr Smith said.
“We had a discussion 10 years ago about the Grand Jubilee and people going on about street parties and then wondering why there weren’t so many. They keep kidding themselves that there are going to be more street parties than there are, but it’s on the decline.
“People have basically been told that they’ve got the day off, and most people will say ‘oh well thanks for the day off I’m going to do something else’. They’re not going to go and organise a street party to celebrate the wedding.”
In addition to this seeming lack of interest, citizens have also reportedly been put off by council demands for hundreds of pounds in public liability insurance.
Those who want to stage traditional street parties would need to pay for 'traffic management companies' due to legislation introduced by Labour seven years ago that prevents locals from blocking through roads using home-made signs.
Hardly surprising then that there are far fewer street parties planned for 29 April than there were for the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 – given that residents can no longer make a last-minute decision to close off their road.
Despite people’s fatigue with street bashes and the Royal Wedding in general, it’s been all hands on deck from the government trying to drum up enthusiasm for street parties, even Prime Minister David Cameron has been doing his part.
Possibly sick of running a political party he thought he would try his hand at putting on a royal one by applying for a licence to hold a street party on Downing Street.
It will be the third event he and wife Samantha will attend on the day, as the pair have also been invited to witness the royal nuptials at Westminster Abbey and then to a lunchtime Buckingham Palace reception.
But the Camerons are unlikely to be hit with the same barrage of red tape and costs that ordinary citizens face if they want to celebrate the big day of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Along with the decrease in applications for road closures, travel agents have seen a boom in overseas travel plans for the long weekend, implying many citizens just want to get away from the fuss.
http://uk.royalwedding.yahoo.com/blogs/ ... party-3599
Well, seems like the people have already decided to stick it up to the royals.
- By Pants-of-dog
- By litwin