Access permissions for urban races

[Snail]

What do people do about "land" permissions for urban races?

Thinking about my local urban area I guess there could be 30+ 'landowners' who might need to be approached:
- town / county councils, national trust, owner and/or managing agent for at least 5 different shopping centres, areas around the local cinema / theatre / sports centre which may be under council control but could just as easily be private, many private paved car parks around shops which offer feasible cut-throughs, many other paved areas around shops, offices etc which are technically privately owned, a few areas owned / controlled by charitable trusts, etc etc.

For most of these the public will have conditional rights of access - but that typically wouldn't include "racing". Do clubs typically approach all such owners? Or can the local authoority somehow grant a blanket permission that covers all areas within their boundary?

[Angry Haggis]

What do people do about "land" permissions for urban races?

Thinking about my local urban area I guess there could be 30+ 'landowners' who might need to be approached:
- town / county councils, national trust, owner and/or managing agent for at least 5 different shopping centres, areas around the local cinema / theatre / sports centre which may be under council control but could just as easily be private, many private paved car parks around shops which offer feasible cut-throughs, many other paved areas around shops, offices etc which are technically privately owned, a few areas owned / controlled by charitable trusts, etc etc.

For most of these the public will have conditional rights of access - but that typically wouldn't include "racing". Do clubs typically approach all such owners? Or can the local authoority somehow grant a blanket permission that covers all areas within their boundary?

I know this is not very helpful, but - it's a bit of a nightmare.

In fact we had issues at a race yesterday (I was photographing runners and was approached by a previously unknown landowner who was wondering why he hadn't been informed. Some areas of private land can look virtually identical to public areas.)

Another issue was on a redevelopment at an urban race late last year where security pro-actively removed controls and locked them away! Marshals were on hand to direct approaching runners away and the the legs concerned were voided, while the rest of the race was able to continue.

At another urban race late last year a control had to be moved a metre away from a fence to a lamppost beside the fence - the latter being on public land, the private being the railings beside an office that, it turned out, had a weekend presence.

One tactical consideration to make is simply to balance the completeness of the map with the difficulty of getting permissions. i.e. unless a particular bit of the map would significantly enhance the orienteering, it may just be simpler to show it as OOB even if the public would normally have access.

Additionally if there are no controls in an area concerned, the public have "normal" access to the area, it's not a big event, and you are not running a disruptive element, e.g. mass start or a high-volume leg, you may not need to get formal permission for a section. If you do have a control in the area that is quite different. Your mileage may vary.

My club is holding an event on Tuesday evening in an area which, while potentially brilliant for urban racing, has such a dense network of housing associations, residents committees and other organisations that permissions would be a major problem. Simple solution - it's a low-key street-o with no controls.

[EddieH]

I spoke to our orienteering friendly council official before the Moray Mix last year. She said - it's all public access - just get on with it and "don't inform the traffic department" "don't ask the police - simply let them know a few days before that there will be an event in the town and we don't need any assistance."

When I planned the Scottish sprints in Lossiemouth I knocked on the doors of all houses whose fence I wished to attach a control to. I had unfailing encouragement from every one of them.

[Slowtochide]

The short answer is that you have to be pragmatic.
With the City of London we are very fortunate that the main 'landowner', the City of London Corporation, is very helpful. Initial permission gets us the use of the streets and parks (and most churchyards in the City are 'parks' for this purpose). But there are of course lots of private land around office buildings which normally allow public access (witness crane crew that blocked off an area early on in last years course). This is where the pragmatism comes in - if courses will just run through such an area we don't ask permission, but if we want to hang a control then it is a 100% must to get it. Even so we ended up moving a control one metre in the middle of last year's race because we had it hanging on private railings. We also make sure to have an explanation and contact phone numbers on a card attached to the control unit (laminated and reusable)

Of course the security aspect of beeping electronic boxes in an area like CoL is another matter...
And then there was my interesting conversation with the police dog sniffer unit that came to investigate whilst I was out taping control sites...

BTW This year's CoL event is on Saturday 18th September (plus Hampstead Heath on the Sunday), a date duly arrived at after checking and negotiating through all of the potential clashes that I could think of. Only... now I find that is the date that the Pope comes to town . A unique opportunity to combine events?

[Gross]

Only... now I find that is the date that the Pope comes to town . A unique opportunity to combine events?

There's a good race on in Vatican City that weekend also