Stroud District Safety Advisory Group (SAG)
Stroud District Safety Advisory Group (SAG)
The Stroud SAG acts as a single point of contact for organisers of large events in the district to notify the relevant regulatory bodies and obtain safety advice and information on a wide range of topics.
The Stroud District SAG includes representatives from the emergency services (Police, Fire and Ambulance Service); Gloucestershire County Council (Highways) and Stroud District Council (Building Control, Environmental Health, Legal, Licensing and Civil Contingencies). Other organisation can be involved as necessary (such as the Coastguard and the County Council's Civil Protection Team). The Group is chaired by Stroud District Council's Head of Health and Wellbeing. A summary of the roles of its members can be found in the SAG protocol.
What sort of events does the Stroud SAG consider?
The SAG exists to help ensure the safe running of large, open air events (i.e. for more than 500 people) but smaller events may be considered if they involve significant risks (such as those taking place on water, or large firework displays). In exceptional circumstances the SAG may consider an event with unusual hazards or risks held inside a building.
What can the SAG do?
The main objectives of the SAG are to promote good levels of safety and welfare at events by giving advice and guidance and to minimise adverse impacts on the local community. The SAG cannot give permission for events to go ahead nor can it prohibit the running of an event but individual members of the SAG may intervene to deal with significant safety issues. The Group meets at least once a year and communicates regularly to coordinate advice to organisers.
The SAG does not have any operational function. In the case of an incident or emergency occurring during the course of an event, the appropriate emergency services should be contacted immediately in the normal way. The SAG will, however, consider feedback from events to see if there any lessons to be learned.
Note: the SAG is not responsible for giving permission to use Stroud District Council land or granting licenses for events. If any organisation or community group wishes to use any park or open space that is owned or managed by the Council they should seek permission from the Asset Management team. Where a licence is required an application must be submitted separately to the licensing team. Email: licensing@stroud.gov.uk.
Notifying the SAG of your event
Most events are planned months in advance and, to be effective, the SAG needs to be involved in the early stages. Organisers should, therefore, aim to give 3 months notice (or 6 months notice in the case of events involving more than 10,000 people) by completing the event notification form below and sending it to environmental.health@stroud.gov.uk. Please enter “SAG” in the subject line.
On receipt of an event notification form, the members of the SAG will consider whether or not further information is required. It is possible that you will be asked to submit various documents such as an event management plan; risk assessments; traffic management plan and evidence of public liability insurance, which will be circulated to the relevant agencies. Thereafter, agencies may contact you directly to provide advice or to request more information or clarification. In the case of very large or complex events you may be invited to attend a meeting to discuss your proposals with members of the SAG.
See our webpage on Planning an event in the Stroud District for more advice and guidance on organising an event
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