Hosting a Platinum Jubilee Street Party 2022

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Apply to host a Platinum Jubilee Street Party 2022

This year, Her Majesty The Queen becomes the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of service. To celebrate this unprecedented anniversary, events and initiatives will take place throughout the year, culminating in a four-day UK bank holiday weekend from Thursday 2 to Sunday 5 June. The bank holiday will provide an opportunity for communities and people to come together to celebrate the historic milestone.

As many residents and communities across the borough will want to join in the celebrations by hosting street parties for friends, family and neighbours, the Council’s Events Team provides here guidance on how to plan and organise a fun, successful and safe street party and the simple and free application process to realise your celebration.

Throughout, the Events Team are here to help with all stages of your event planning:

The deadline to apply to hold a Platinum Jubilee Street Party over the June Bank Holiday weekend is midnight on Sunday 1 May 2022.

If you would like to host your Street Party in May, you can still use the guidance and steps below but please do register as soon as possible, so the Events Team can advise you if your application will need to be finalised by an earlier deadline.

Planning your street party

Step 1: Involving your neighbours

One of the most important things to remember when planning a street party in an outdoor public space is letting people living in the immediate area know about your plans well in advance. This can be done in a variety of ways - word of mouth, meetings, a letter drop, local advertisement or social media -  to ensure that everyone has been informed of the key event details and knows how they can get involved.

Step 2: Funding For Your Street Party 

To recognise this very special occasion, the Council is not charging any fees for you to organise a Platinum Jubilee Street Party, and you may even be eligible for funding for your event through the Council’s City Living, Local Life ward based community programme that helps residents improve their neighbourhoods by creating opportunities for conversations and providing funding for community activities. Please visit the City Living Local Life page for more information.

Step 3: Making your street a safe space for your Street Party

To ensure the safety of everyone involved in a street party taking place on any public street or road that would usually have moving or parked vehicles, you may need to temporarily close the road to traffic and leave parking bays empty of vehicles. If you need either of these measures, the Events Team will forward you a form that can be returned to the Team or uploaded and submitted online at the same time as your event application.

For a road closure, the Events Team will issue you with an official Temporary Street Closure Notice that should be printed and displayed at either end of the road closure for the duration of the event. You may need to hire or purchase your own barriers, cones and signage to show that the street is closed for your event. 

For parking, the Parking Team will put up the signage on the street so you won’t need to do anything, apart from reminding your neighbours to move their cars the night before to avoid disruption to setting up.

Busy and publicly-accessible locations require some security planning and increased vigilance. If your street party involves a road closure, it is advised by the Metropolitan Police that any routes a vehicle could access are blocked, for instance with a barrier or parked vehicle, and are staffed throughout. Vehicle access to your street during your party should be prohibited (except for emergency services) and you should keep vigilant to any suspicious behaviour.

If you suspect there is immediate danger, dial 999, or if there is no immediate threat dial 101 or the National Anti-Terrorist Hotline 0800 789 321.

For more information on how to keep safe in crowded places, visit the GOV.UK website.

Step 4: Your responsibilities as the Event Organiser

Anyone organising an event in a public space where other people are invited to attend should assess the possible risks and remove or manage as many of these as possible, and monitor them throughout the event.

This includes any food provided to those attending your event, regardless of whether it is offered for free or for money. Your food provider is not required to have a food hygiene certificate but you should ensure they are preparing food in a safe and hygienic manner, and the Council’s Environmental Health Team can offer advice where necessary. To find out more about providing safe food at street parties and other community events, please visit the Food Standards Agency website.

While Public Liability Insurance is not a requirement for small residential street parties where everything is brought from home and there are no external suppliers or catering, it is recommended so that you are protected for any situation, such as an accident resulting in injury or damaged property relating to the event. If you choose not to take out Public Liability Insurance, the Council Events Team may ask you to sign an Indemnity Declaration for your responsibilities as Event Organiser. 

If you are unsure whether your event will require public liability insurance, please contact the Events Team:

Step 5: Licensable activities at your Street Party

The Licensing Act 2003 does not require a music licence at a street party unless amplified music is one of the main purposes of the event.
However, if you plan to sell alcohol you will need to submit a Temporary Events Notice (TEN).

A TEN is a temporary authorisation that allows you to carry out licensable activities such as the sale of alcohol and regulated entertainment at events where there will be 499 people or less (including staff and performers) in attendance at any one time.

If it is likely that the attendance at your street party will exceed 499 people, then an application for a grant of a premises licence will need to be submitted. The Events Team will provide you with the Platinum Jubilee TEN form for your completion and submission to the Licensing Team.

Step 6: Decorate your street

Decorating the street for your party can be a great way of bringing the Platinum Jubilee theme together, so however you choose to do this, make sure you involve your neighbours in any decisions which may affect their properties, including access on the pavement to their gardens and doorways. 

If you are planning on hanging bunting or decorations on the street using lampposts or other street furniture, please let the Events Team know in your application so they can provide guidance specific to your Street Party location, as many of the borough’s lampposts are historic and should not be used, or your decorations would be too-low hanging as they need to be no lower than 8ft from the ground. And if you have balloons at your event, remember to weigh them down and never release them into the sky, as this can have detrimental consequences for nature and wildlife. 

All decorations need to be completely removed before reopening the road after your Street Party.

Step 7: Arrangements for your Jubilee Party rubbish

Street parties often generate additional waste and debris that is not expected in weekly household waste collections and routine street sweeps. The Council encourages all residents to reduce their carbon footprint, so please do think about reusing and recycling items for your street party by – see Step 8 Make your Street Party environmentally-friendly.

At the end of your party, please bag up your additional waste, sorting into recyclable and refuse where possible, and leave it where you would normally leave your rubbish on the day of your street’s existing domestic collection, to ensure that your street is clean and clear of all rubbish from your party. Search for your bin collection days.

The Events Team are working with the Council’s waste contractor SUEZ, if an additional effort is needed for larger street parties to get the streets back to the usual high standard of cleanliness following the bank holiday weekend.

Step 8: Make your Street Party environmentally-friendly

Did you know that World Environment Day takes place every year on 5 June, the same day as the Platinum Jubilee Big Lunch? This is the United Nation’s flagship day for promoting worldwide awareness and action for the environment. The theme for this year is Only One Earth, highlighting that this planet is our only home, and we all have a duty to live in harmony with nature and to adopt a cleaner and greener lifestyle. 

The Council recognises that climate change is one of the world’s biggest challenges happening now and adopted a new Climate Emergency Action Plan 2022-2027  this year as a commitment to tackling this challenge.

So here are some top tips for ensuring your Street Party is environmentally friendly: 

  • Offer homemade cooked food, or buy local and seasonal produce to avoid food miles. 
  • Choose meat-free or plant-based snacks and foods. 
  • Avoid single-use plastics so ask everyone to bring their own plate, cutlery and cup. 
  • Create your own event decorations that can even be reused. 
  • Share food leftovers and decorations to minimise waste. 
  • Promote healthy and sustainable messages during the party. 
  • Organise a swap-event for children’s toys, clothes or books to encourage people to reuse things and reduce consumption.

Submitting your application

Step 9: Registration and the Online Application

Now that you’ve started your event planning and understood the process, you’re ready to submit your application. The first thing you need to do is register on the Council’s Events website. Once registered, you can submit your online application that will be given a unique reference number that helps all of the services across the Council that are involved in facilitating street events .

The Council’s Events Team will then contact you to confirm the details in your application, answer any questions you may have and being the process of liaising with the other Council services. Depending on the size and complexity of your street party, for instance selling alcohol or playing amplified music, there may be extra forms to complete, before finalising your event permissions, all in good time for you and your neighbours to enjoy your Platinum Jubilee Street Party.

Register online

 

The Events Team can be contacted on:

Event Checklist

This guidance will hopefully help you understand what considerations are needed when planning a street party. To summarise, here is a helpful planning checklist to keep you on track:

  • Involve neighbours in your plans, inviting them to join in on the day or volunteer to help organise
  • Ensure your party has sufficient funding
  • Making your street a safe space with a road closure or parking suspensions
  • Secure insurance or sign an indemnity form
  • Check if you need a TEN license 
  • Decorating your street
  • Make arrangements for your Jubilee Party rubbish
  • Think about your event being an environmentally-friendly Street Party
  • Register with the Events Team on Apply4 
  • Submit your online event application
  • Receive official permissions from the Council 
  • Hold your Jubilee Street Party and Enjoy!

More information

For more information on the Platinum Jubilee and Street Parties please visit Her Majesty The Queen's Platinum Jubilee page.

Last updated: 7 April 2022