Councillors have warned major festivals and events in Lichfield can hinder rather than help businesses that are permanently located in the city.
The issue was raised at a meeting of Lichfield District Council’s cabinet this week where a revised events policy was discussed.
New proposals will see a scoring matrix introduced against which council officers will decide whether or not to grant permission for an event attracting more than 500 people to go ahead.
But Cllr Andy Smith, cabinet member for innovation, said there needed to be a balance between attracting people into the city for events and those businesses that could be disrupted.
“I fully support what the policy and the scoring matrix is trying to achieve, and I get that what we’re trying to do is create as little friction as possible when someone wants to run an event.
“But on the flipside, we’ve got to look after bricks and mortar businesses that are permanent and pay business rates. We can sometimes see that there may be a conflict between some events and those businesses.
“An example is the food festival where we’ve got stalls on the city streets. It’s a fantastic spectacle, but the business owners and retailers do not like the frequency or the location of the stalls sometimes.
“If you’re a cafe you don’t want someone selling beef burgers outside your business.
“I’m keen to see the scoring matrix giving a fair hearing to the bricks and mortar businesses – and I don’t mean just an officer saying it’s good for the economy, but proper representation to allow local businesses to have a real input.”
Cllr Andy Smith, Lichfield District Council
Cllr Richard Cox, cabinet member for community engagement, said the council needed to ensure concerns raised by permanent businesses were being heard.
“There has to be a recognition of those businesses who are here 24/7 trying to earn their crust, so that they don’t lose out – we have to get that balance so that everybody is happy.
“There’s also something to be said about the timing of events. One in August is oversubscribed with visitors because the weather is nice, but similar events can be disguised as something else at other times of the year which don’t have the same attraction.
“So what happens is that the footfall is not as great but the disruption is just as bad for permanent businesses.”
Cllr Richard Cox, Lichfield District Council
“A much better environment
Deputy leader Cllr Iain Eadie said changes introduced during the pandemic which allowed businesses to trade outside had already seen the impact of a high number of stalls in a small area during events eased.
And he said the benefits to permanent businesses were often felt over a longer period of time.
“The feedback I heard last year with regards to the food festival was that given businesses were able to expand outside their premises, that created a much better environment because they could trade and benefit from people circling around.
“It also led to a more dispersed food festival around the city for example, so we as a council need to work harder as a big landowner to see what we can do to encourage things to be more dispersed so that people can get in and out of businesses while also enjoying great events.
“Often the feedback from businesses is that while they might not see the benefit on the day, having people visit Lichfield encourages them to come back and that’s when they see the benefit.”
Cllr Iain Eadie, Lichfield District Council
