Party time in Randwick

BY RYAN QUINN

Randwick Council is putting aside $10,000 dollars to cover the cost and planning of your next neighbourhood ‘block party’.

Liberal Randwick Councillor Brendan Roberts said that the council were supporting a sense of community by setting aside funds for traffic management during neighbourhood functions.

“It allows streets and neighbours to come together and not be hamstrung by local government red tape,” he told City Hub.

“It allows communities that have been working hard all year to gather together, enjoy a barbeque, enjoy a street free of cars, enjoy letting their kids run around, and it’s an opportunity for council to support them to do that.”

November and December have been known to Randwick Council as a prime time for ‘block parties’.

In 2014, Randwick Council received 8 applications for street parties for the end of the year, according to council meeting documents.

Without this new allocation of funding, residents would be required to provide their own Traffic Management Plan, which only larger organisations have the capacity to provide.

“If anyone ever wants to close off a street for an event, they have to provide a traffic management plan to the council,” Clr Roberts said.

Clr Roberts said the plan would not “cost a lot of money”, and said the plan would not put the council “out of pocket”, as it was a “diversion of council resources”.

Council documents said that the funds would help to create a strong partnership between the council, the community and government agencies, and would also ensure community safety.

“As part of council’s commitment to building “a sense of community”, support should be given towards neighbourhood street parties. To safely close the road to facilitate street parties, appropriate traffic control needs to be implemented,” a council