Decision details

To seek the Cabinet Member’s approval to formalise the Council’s commitment to stage the Woodland Festival for a further period of three years from 2022 to 2024 inclusive and to approve a suite of special event car parking charges for the Derbyshire County Council Woodland Festival, Elvaston Castle Country Park in September 2022.

That the Cabinet Member:

a) Approves the Council’s commitment to arrange the Woodland Festival each September during 2022, 2023 and 2024.
b) Approves the suite of special event car parking charges, as set out in the report, at the Derbyshire County Council Woodland Festival at Elvaston Castle Country Park on 17 and 18 September 2022.
c) Notes that a further report will be prepared for consideration during 2022-23 that sets out proposals for introducing new commercial arrangements for the 2023 Woodland Festival.

So that the Council formerly continues its commitment to the event for a period of at least three years to plan and resource the event effectively.

This charge will act as the price of entering the festival and will be used to offset the cost of staging the event.

The alternative options considered in respect of this decision were as follows:

Cancel/do nothing – This option was discounted because the Festival has value to the Council and the community, as cited under corporate objectives. In addition, the Council could face considerable reputation loss as the Festival is well established and popular with residents and visitors alike.

Run a reduced Festival – This option was discounted because a reduced programme has the same costs as staging the full Festival in terms of infrastructure, promotion, etc, but would likely attract fewer visitors and fewer paying stallholders upon which income depends.

Source an external company to run the festival on behalf of the Council – This option has been discounted for 2022 as there is insufficient time to explore it robustly. However, as referenced in Paragraph 4.13 (a), it will be considered for 2023.

Retain suite of event charges at existing rate (£10 and £5) - This has been rejected as they have not been increased since 2018 and there was a considerable increase in the cost of festival infrastructure in 2021 as a result of the Covid pandemic. In addition, the festival needs to contribute to delivering the Council's Five Year Financial Plan.