Flyers ban reversed to help city festival
Promoters have been told that they will be allowed to hand out leaflets and flyers during this year's Leicester Comedy Festival after council officials changed the rules.
The practice had been banned to stop city nightclubs, pubs and entertainment venues littering the streets.
However, comedy festival organisers feared the rules would hinder the promotion of the gigs, which will be happening across the city when the event gets under way from next month.
City council officials have now revised their policy on flyers to allow groups to hand out promotional material during the festival.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Sunday, June 30 2013
The ruling will apply to other major events in the city.
Geoff Rowe, festival director, said he was "thrilled" about the change of heart.
He said: "I'm delighted that we've been able to reach a suitable conclusion, both for us and for other cultural events and festivals throughout the year.
"It would have had quite a significant impact, I think, because giving out flyers and having performers in the streets is a big part of the festival atmosphere. It could have had a big impact on reducing ticket sales as well."
Leicester City Council brought in the ban last year to stop the problem of litter caused by leaflets put out by city nightclubs, pubs and entertainment venues.
Comedy festival bosses told council leaders they could not afford to pay for a special licence to allow gigs to give out leaflets during the event.
They added that the failure to promote shows could lead to a drop in atmosphere and attendances.
Under the revised policy, the council will still generally not allow leaflets and flyers to be given out in relation to commercial entertainment venues, but applications for "special entertainment events" will be considered on their merits.
These will include non-commercial, charitable or community-related events and limited-period festivals.
Councillor Rob Wann, cabinet member for the environment, said: "Since this policy began in April, the city centre has been noticeably free of the huge amounts of litter caused by irresponsible flyer distribution.
"We want to keep the city clean, but we appreciate that the policy as it stood gave officers no flexibility to consider special events such as those which might benefit the city or local communities.
"We've now amended it slightly to give this flexibility, and to allow officers to consider certain applications on their own merits."
Comments
by Anthony, Fitzrovia
Friday, June 25 2010, 10:39AM
“I'm not happy. This Nationalisation of the promotion industries has been going on piecemeal using salami tactics since Business Investment Districts were set up to Privatise our Public Spaces and the Police in 2004.
It is complete hypocisy for the council to have a monopoly on promoting events and morally wrong for them to vet the public distribution of printed matter for their devious political ends. They attack anyone promoting an event they dont politically like - even the women's institute. These changes implemented over the last 5 years are an attempt to exert political control over comedy promoters like me and they represent the most massive changes in the public right to access public space
since the Enclosure Acts of the 1850s
forced people off farms and into the cities. They are stealth legislation cunningly concealed in minor pieces of "routine" legislation.”
by David Morgan, Leicester
Wednesday, January 14 2009, 2:28PM
“Yay! Well done Leicester Council and, save from Byron, everyone seems happy.
It's definitely good for new acts such as myself to be able to get our gigs out there for people to see! It's hard with out the big bucks of a tour to do it for us!
and thanks to the comedy festival all the other festivals and events in Leicester can benefit too is there anything LCF can't do”
by geoff, Leicester
Wednesday, January 14 2009, 2:14PM
“Byron
Thanks for joining in the discussion although I do resent your comment. There is no evidence that the festival will leave a carpet of soggy waste paper. the festival works hard to ensure waste from the festival is kept to a minimum and cleared up after the event. Regarding your comments about over indulgence, I'll leave that to others to comment on.
geoff”
by emma, Leicester
Wednesday, January 14 2009, 1:05PM
“Having read another article today in this paper, ( well website) It appears that a staggering amount of the litter collected in the city is from McDonalds, Greggs and other fast food outlets.
Nothing to do with flyers or the Comedy Festival. Ultimately it is the choice of the individual to put their litter in the bin.
i recall there was moaning a plenty about the cost of cleaning up after Divali celebrations last year - if everyone put their rubbish in the bin there'd be no problem and LCC would not have to prosecute as many as they do for littering. Simple choice = find a bin or pay £80 fine.”
by James, Leicester
Wednesday, January 14 2009, 12:28PM
“Whilst I fully understand the policy it has created another problem that on the face of it is much worse - Fly Posting. There has been a marked increase in the amount of Lamp posts being used to advertise events. Within my Job Role this has been raised with the Environmental Crime Team with no apparent action. Whilst the City Centre has become cleaner for this policy the commute into Leicester for "Tourists" does nothing to say that it is a clean city as at every set of traffic lights they are confronted with fly posting.”
by julie ex pat!, Belfast
Wednesday, January 14 2009, 11:18AM
“I subscribe to the Leicester Comedy Festival to receive their news and events emails and the work done for this goes on all year, every year.
This event is staged here successfully year upon year and I congratulate the council on lifting the restrictions on this event, despite Byron's negative comment. An event lke this attracts a magnitude of people from all across the world brings in lots of revenue and puts Leicester on the map as a city and also a comedy centre. If support for flyers was not given and the hard work of all involved made the event fail or suffer could mean the end of Leicester Comedy Festival and another city would jump at hosting the event so Leicester Council, well done for seeing sense for a change and if Byron thinks it will be a carpet of soggy waste, maybe he could avoid the city centre for the duration of the festival!!! We all have freedom of choice......... occassionally!!”
by Byron Getwunfrei, Leicester
Wednesday, January 14 2009, 9:53AM
“Oh, lovely. A carpet of soggy waste paper decorated with the results of over indulgence to decorate the town centre.
That will be something to look forward to.”