The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Blame game is raging over Hogmanay hoolie
PARTY: Organiser and council at odds over responsibility for event relocation from City Square to indoor venue
The organiser of Dundee’s first Hogmanay party in two decades has laid the blame for its relocation from City Square to Fat Sam’s solely at the door of the council.
Dundee City Council licensing convener Stewart Hunter has flatly denied the claims and insisted safety was key in every recommendation made by the safety advisory group (Sag), made up of the local authority, NHS Tayside and the emergency services.
Mr Hunter revealed it is the first time the Sag has raised concerns after having considered almost 100 events in previous meetings.
Jill Gibson, a director of organiser GMC Ventures and spokeswoman for the It’s Happening party on December 31, insists she and her team did everything the council asked.
Event managers were told to satisfy five safety concerns by December 20 or face cancellation after council officers said the event could “put public safety at risk”.
Ten meetings were held over the course of seven months and there were complete resubmissions of the event plan five times.
Ms Gibson has criticised what council events chief Claire Dow called a “naturally flowing conversation” throughout the process during which new issues were flagged up while other problems were being resolved.
Dundee’s licensing committee heard this was done to avoid overwhelming GMC but Ms Gibson said she wished the issues had all been raised at the same time.
She said: “I’m angry at the council – they’ve done this. We’ve been forced into changing the venue because they kept moving the goalposts.
“We wanted the event to happen in City Square but it was too risky to wait until December 20 to see what the story was. If we had waited until then and they said no we would have had to cancel the whole event.
“I’m 100% confident that our plan was safe and watertight.”
Mr Hunter said the Sag gave Ms Gibson and other event organisers every opportunity to make it work and insisted he would be delighted to see GMC return to the table next year.
He said: “Since the Sag was set up it has looked at nearly 100 events and this is the first time it has come to committee to say it has concerns.
“We aren’t trying to stop people from running events – it’s about making sure that what we put on is safe.
“I want this to be successful, as I said at the committee.
“I think it’s unfortunate that they have made a decision to move it to Fat Sam’s but I think we were pretty clear they could do what was asked within the deadline.
“We’ve been working with them since May and a lot of work has gone in. I hope it’s a great event.”