Basingstoke MP Maria Miller is supporting plans to cut red tape for people organising street parties.
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council wants to reduce restrictions on residents after just 21 shindigs got the go ahead prior to the royal wedding on April 29.
Last week the council’s community wellbeing, overview and scrutiny committee agreed to back measures promoting an increase in community celebrations.
It is hoped this will encourage more group’s to hang out the bunting for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
Mrs Miller said: “I think it’s a shame the borough council hasn’t taken a more pragmatic view up to now.”
She said the Diamond Jubilee was a significant event that would give communities across the borough an opportunity to come together in celebration.
“There is more the borough council can do to remove some of the restrictions, in particular the need to have insurance,” she said. “The Prime Minister himself has said that borough councils should look into removing these kind of restrictions.”
Public liability insurance protects event organisers from damages awarded to anybody injured whilst attending a party.
But councillors fear costs involved are off-putting for people planning a single celebration with neighbours, rather than a profit-making event for the general public.
The council is aiming to encourage more of the former, in a bid to foster community spirit and reduce costs involved in organising official events.
Councillor Stephen Reid spoke in support of the measures at the meeting on May 25. He said: “We need to not have, as happened with the royal wedding, some obstacles in the way, in terms of public liability insurance and health and safety.”
He said the borough council had to approach future events positively, rather than getting in the way of people enjoying themselves.
“We have got enough advance warning to get these obstacles removed and to approach this in a can do manner,” he said.
Barry Dodds, who runs Greenways Newsagents in the Winklebury centre, helped organise a street party three years ago, raising £3,500 for a child with heart problems.
He said: “It was a hell of a lot of work as there were lots of council regulations we had to deal with.
“They were a bit of a pain, but it was fantastic to raise the money that we did.”
Mr Dodds was reluctant to repeat the process for last month’s royal wedding, but said he would be encouraged to so in future should restrictions be relaxed.
