Glasgow City Race

[johnloguk]

does anybody know what the insurance/permissions/police situation is when organising a street O-race?

I suspect the system is different wherever you are, so I can only comment on Lincolnshire. We have an organisation called LESAG (Lincolnshire Events "something" Advisory Group"), which is multi-agency; local authority, police, fire brigade etc. They have a pack of guidelines for events, covering everything from public firework displays to road races, and street markets to water carnivals. You follow the guidance, very straight forward, submit your proposals, complete with risk assessments etc; then they either give the go ahead or suggest further things you need to do. There is a guy who you can phone to talk things through with, and he is very helpful. Basically, if you can show you have the angles covered and have thought about it as you should, they have no problems with the event going ahead.

I assume all the other stuff, such as insurance, is the same as any orienteering event.

[lincolnsteve]

Just to elaborate on what John has posted.

As mentioned our first point of contact is with the county agency LESAG, we provide them with a proposal which drafts the outline idea to run a race in X area of the city along with a map highlighting competition area. We also have to provide a Risk Assessment, a Safety Plan and for the Bomber earlier this year I wrote up a Method Statement so the bods could see how the event works right from the first stages of planning and organising through to event day and afterwards (this actually worked really well for the group who had no idea what an orienteering event entailed) I put in lots of references to BOF rules and guidelines and highlighted an independent controller will be involved to ensure we follow the guidelines. I also included the 4 courses from January so they get an idea of whats happening.

This year LESAG passed on the race details to the city based Safety Group as there are lots of road works going on within the town around the race date. We then had to attend a committee meeting whos members were from the police, council, fire, ambulane etc. They made some recomendations and the police asked for the courses before hand on a map with street names on!!

Now we have to run the Risk Assessment via the Castle, Old Palace, Uni and any other areas we wish to use. Given it has LESAG and the city group approval this will please the site managers.

Another part of the LESAG process includes them notifying all the shops in the competiton area that the event will be taking place that day.

Then finally we make the point that competitors compete at their own risk. Not sure how water tight this is but it seems to of been the norm in orienteering for the last 12 years that I have been in the sport.

If anyone wants any more info about dealing with safety groups please feel free to PM me.

Steve

P.S While surfing google for safety stuff I noticed that most Councils/Counties seem to have an Event Safety Group so I guess they are pretty standard. They are definatly a good starting point.

[Snail]

I assume all the other stuff, such as insurance, is the same as any orienteering event.

I wouldn't be so sure...

BOF insurance is I think primarily to indemnify the organiser against claims from third parties.
Anything that involves a "race" along/across public roads must put third parties (drivers, pedestrians etc) at much greater risk than running through forests.