St Martins TRA

We’ve been receiving reports of anti social parking by users of the Abbots Park community centre. They have now agreed a plan to deal with this

• Increased deposit of £300 taken for event bookings, this is not refunded if the hirers do not adhere to the terms and conditions of the hire (which include managing parking and noise)
• Laminated signs and cones used outside of the building to control parking
• Music in Hall to end at 11:30pm. All bookings to end by 12am
• Clear guidance on hall capacity when people are booking the hall
• There is always a staff member on site during an events/ bookings. For larger events this is now increased to 2/3 members of staff.
• Staff are guiding people to the centre garden if they want to access an outside space, rather than outside the front door.
• Caretaker carries out a monitoring form with the hirer at the start and end of every booking.

They community centre are hoping to implement the following soon

• New sound restrictor (which automatically limits volume of music in hall) going to be installed
• Contacting the school to explore use of sharing/hiring parking facilities
• Reviewing staff arrangements to make sure there is a dedicated person available at the beginning of each booking to be outside directing on parking
• Reviewing term and conditions of hire agreement to make sure it is clearly communicated about parking / noise / timing
• Encourage hirers to use public transport to reduce parking on the estate

We’d be interested to hear if these new procedures are working. If you have any thoughts please contact us, and please let rachel.pearson@optivo.org.uk know too.