Postby Jonny Dyson Property Consultants » Tue Jun 13, 2017 7:01 pm
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to post on this thread. I would like to add a little more context to the decision to cancel for this year if I may.
Whilst we have a number of sponsors, we have unfortunately lost our two principal sponsors in the last few weeks. I am not going to say who they were as that would be neither fair nor right. It's not in anyone's interest to make these people scapegoats.
The Northcote fete costs a substantial amount to put on and although stall sales contribute around 15% - 20% of this, the remainder comes from sponsorship. Last week we were looking at a shortfall of between £15,000 - £20,000. The further difficulty we had was that following the recent events in London & Manchester, we were uncertain as to what security arrangements we would be asked to put in place. One of the great advantages of the fete in the past was that if there was an incident at the event (fire/flood etc) it was very easy for people to get away from the area, however this year that really works against us. There are 22 main vehicular access points onto Northcote Road and at the very least we would have to provide moveable barriers on each of these to prevent a potential attack from someone driving onto the main road.
The first issue was to raise the £15,000 - £20,000 shortfall, following which we would have a meeting with the Wandsworth SAG (Safety Advisory Group) to determine exactly what other requirements we would have to cover. This meeting was planned for this week. Given the lack of sponsorship funds we had to make a final decision as to whether we could go ahead with the event by last Thursday, and at that time the simple answer was that we did not have sufficient funds to go ahead.
The Northcote event is a little different from the Ritherden & Abbeville events and on this occasion the size and reputation has definitely worked against us. This is not a matter of being 'cowardly' Ronich - we have thousands of people's lives at risk and unless we can stand up and say that we did everything in our power to prevent an attack then it's simply not a risk we are prepared to take.
It's certainly not something I want on my conscience for the rest of my life.
Events like these require the organisers to provide everything from first aid, security, stewards, barriers and so on - there is no assistance such as 'extra Police' as this is not their responsibility. The council do take money for the parking spaces (even though technically it's free parking on a Sunday!!) but what do you expect with the lowest council tax in the country - we can't have it both ways folks. In fairness to them however, the Clapham Junction Town Centre Manager is an absolute gem and she has helped us over the years to find all sorts of bypasses and back routes into extra help and funding. Mind you, her role is being cut from the Wandsworth budget next year so that will be that!!
Lastly, the sponsor was also not Hamptons. Although my previous company sponsored the event for a couple of years, as Papinian says, the general slowdown of the property market since the stamp duty changes (very little to do with Brexit by the way) has ensured that there is precious little money from estate agents to throw around at sponsorship these days. The Parsley Song - 'making a packet' - you couldn't be further from the truth, it's still a miracle to me that more haven't gone under already!! As for paying to get in, this is definitely something that we will need to look at for next year, however it would require significant fencing, and fully staffed check points at every one of the 22 connecting roads which, whilst possible, could cost just as much as the entry fee would raise.
Thankfully we have had three potential sponsors come forward this week, so we will be engaging with them to make sure that next year's fete can go ahead. It's a great shame to have had to cancel, for the residents, the local businesses and also the stall holders who had this weekend blocked in their diaries for the last few months, however I'm genuinely heartened by the fact that it's clearly an event that so many people have come to love. We will be back...!!!
Many thanks for reading,
Jonathan
Chairman
Northcote Business Network
We offer clients invaluable insight and support in their acquisition, rental, investment and development of London residential property.
