If you are planning an event in the Winchester District, please notify us using this form. You will need to login/register using the Your Winchester online portal.

If you already have documents such as your Event Management Plan, Risk Assessments and Public Liability Insurance, please ensure you have a copy ready to attach to this form.  

Your completed form will be circulated to the relevant council departments who may require additional information from you.  

Choosing the right location is critical to your event. There are many things to consider when choosing a location:

• Where are your guests are coming from?
• Is the location accessible and easy to find?
• Is the location near public transport routes? If not, is there sufficient parking available?
• Is the location the right size for your event? How many people are you expecting?
• Would grass or hard standing be better for your event?
• Would your event have any affect on vegetation or wildlife?
• Are there neighbouring properties that might be disturbed by noise from your event?
• Do the surroundings of the location fit with the atmosphere of the event?

Winchester City Council Land

Winchester City Council have a range of locations available for hire. The largest available space is North Walls - Devils Island which is suitable for mid-scale (<5,000 capacity) festivals.

There are other, smaller spaces available which are typically used for community parties, charity fundraisers or smaller one-off events. These include:

• Chilcomb Sports Ground
• King George V Playing Fields/The Garrison Ground
• Somers Close
• Stanmore Rec (Cromwell Rd)
• Abbey Gardens
• Oram’s Arbour

If you are interested in hiring Winchester City Council land for an event, please contact: naturalenvironment@winchester.gov.uk

Charitable organisations can also hire St Maurice's Covert, the area between Greggs' the Bakers and the Debenhams building. Full details can be seen here: Hire of St Maurice's Covert - Winchester City Council

Parish Council Land

If you hope to hold your event on Parish Council land, you will need to obtain permission. Get in touch with the Parish Council using our list of contact details.

Private Land

There are lots of other event spaces across the district which are owned by private landowners such as:

• Matterly Bowl
• Woodmancott Field
• Field with a view
• Wickham Fields
• Dalton Barracks

Please contact the landowners directly if you’d like to hire their land for an event.

Unsure on landowner?

If you have a particular piece of land in mind to hold your event but are unsure of the owner you may like to carry out a Land Registry Search (there is a charge for this service). Further details can be found by visiting the Land Registry website.

If you intend to serve or sell alcohol, provide regulated entertainment or late-night refreshment, you will require a licence, under the Licensing Act 2003.

Regulated entertainment is defined as:

• a performance of a play
• an exhibition of a film
• an indoor sporting event
• a boxing or wrestling entertainment
• a performance of live music
• any playing of recorded music
• a performance of dance
• anything similar to music or dancing 

If you have music which is incidental to the main event, such as background music, no licence is required.

Late night refreshment is the provision of hot food or drink between the hours of 2300 and 0500. There is no requirement for a licence between 0500 and 2300. It is always best to check with a Licensing Officer to be certain whether or not a licence is required.

A Temporary Event Notice (TEN) may be used to cover small scale events (lasting no longer than 168 hours) that will cater for a maximum of 499 people including performers. A TEN could be used for a small outdoor cinema event, for example.

If you are intending to attract more than 499 people you will require a Premises Licence. You must allow a minimum of two months to apply for this licence. In the case of an event attracting more than 5,000 people we would expect a minimum of 3 months, and for events for more than 10,000 people a minimum of 6 months’ notice.

There are a few other licences you may need to obtain, depending on what activities you wish hold as part of your event:

• Street Collection Permit - A Street Collection Permit is required to collect money or sell articles for the benefit of a charity, in a street or public place. Street Collection Permit - Winchester City Council
• Street Trading Consent - Street Trading is defined as the selling or offering for sale of any article in the street in a static location. This includes food such as burgers, kebabs, doughnuts etc. or other things - such as merchandise. Street Trading Consent - Winchester City Council
• Small Society Lottery Registration - the society in question must be 'non-commercial' and the total value of tickets for sale per single lottery must not exceed £20,000, or the aggregate value of tickets for sale in all lotteries in a calendar year must not exceed £250,000. Small Society Lottery Registration - Winchester City Council

Further guidance can be found on the Home Office website.

If you have any queries regarding licensing, please email licensing@winchester.gov.uk

Some events may wish to use the highway as part of their event, we aim to minimise disruption to traffic and residents and maximise traffic safety and offer the following advice.

Events held on or off the highway may have an adverse effect on traffic and pedestrians; either by causing additional congestion or introducing hazards to event attendees or other road users. Accordingly, some event organisers will be asked to provide a Traffic Management Plan to show how they will minimise the impact of their event on traffic. See more on the Traffic Management Plan (TMP) section below.

The event organiser should liaise with the emergency services, public transport operators, businesses, residents, and organisations that might be impacted by the event. If road closures are required, the event organiser needs to consider suitable diversion routes for through traffic. Please note, organisers of cycle races and time trials are legally required to alert the police.

Road Closures

If you need to request a road closure to support or enable your event you will need to contact either Winchester City Council or Hampshire County Council. Please read the below advice to check which authority to contact in the first instance.

Road closures for street parties and civic events will be arranged by Winchester City Council using legal powers provided in the Town Police Clauses Act (TPCA 1847). Please contact Winchester City Council for smaller scale events which are less likely to have a major impact on through routes or cause congestion: eventroadclosures@winchester.gov.uk

For more information please visit: Temporary road closure for events - Winchester City Council

Road closures for sporting or leisure events will be arranged by Hampshire County Council using legal powers provided by the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. Please contact Hampshire County Council for events which will take place on the highway or attract a significant number of guests travelling by road, resulting in possible traffic disruption: Temporary.road.closures@hants.gov.uk

For more information please visit: Events on, or Impacting the Highway | Hampshire County Council (hants.gov.uk)

Suspending Parking Bays

In some cases, there may be a need to suspend parking bays for your event, for example to maintain access for emergency vehicles. You can apply to suspend an ‘on-street’ parking bay here: https://www.hants.gov.uk/transport/parking/suspensions

You can apply to suspend an ‘off-street’ (carpark) parking bay here: parking@winchester.gov.uk

Signage

Any signs attached to lamp columns require permission from Hampshire County Council’s street lighting contractor. They can be contacted on tpa@enerveo.com and are unlikely to reject any reasonable request but they will set sensible conditions for the purposes of safety and preventing damage to the column.

The Event Management Plan (EMP) is an essential document for the safe running of all events. It covers all the organisational and safety aspects of your event. The bigger the event and/or the more complex activities involved in your event the more detailed the plan should be.

The aim of your EMP is to identify risks, and include details of measures in place to mitigate these. Your EMP may include information on the following:

• About the Event
• Event Safety
• Amenities
• Emergency Planning
• First Aid
• Fire Safety
• Noise Management
• Crowd Management
• Safeguarding
• Risk Assessments

Where there are events being held on different sites, it is worth considering an overall Event Management Plan and separate site-specific plans. If you would like further advice on your Event Management Plan and what to consider, please refer to our ‘Event Management Guidance’ toolkit.

A Traffic Management Plan (TMP) is one part of the overall Event Management Plan (EMP). It also has links to the risk assessments as key traffic risks and actions identified in the TMP should also be highlighted in the risk assessment. The size and detail to be covered by an event's Traffic Management Plan will be dictated by the impact of the event on the local highway network.

The key, specific areas any TMP should cover are as follows;

• The sign schedule – including advance warning signs.
• Details of all roads to be closed and signed diversion routes.
• Details of any temporary traffic regulation orders made. Event organisers should contact the local District Council to discuss Orders for control measures such as temporary speed limits, lifting of parking restrictions, temporary one-way systems etc.
• Details of expected numbers of attendees and estimated number of vehicles arriving.
• Details of contingencies for adverse weather.
• Details of any arrangements made with Hampshire County Council regarding the control of permanent traffic lights.
• Details of event parking. Enough parking should be provided. If this is not possible then the event promoter must consider additional support to prevent illegal parking.
• Details of consultations and traffic related agreements made, particularly with regard to the emergency services and local residents / businesses and bus services.
• Details of emergency access routes agreed with fire, police and ambulance services, together with details of how this route will be kept open.
• Details of traffic related agreements with bus companies in order to accommodate or divert their services.
• Details of advertising for the event, particularly with regard to advertised routes for attendees. Event promoters should consider the opportunities to maximise the use of public transport to their event to minimise vehicular traffic.
• Details of any ticket / entry fee collections. Tickets and entry fees should not be collected at entry points off of the public highway as this tends to cause unnecessary queuing.
• Traffic related lessons learned from previous events.
• Details of special considerations needed for vulnerable groups or those with disabilities.
• Contact details for the person responsible for traffic management at the event.
• Contact details for other relevant organisations involved in traffic management at the event.

If you are planning an event, you might like to make use of the network of community buses around the District which can provide low cost transport for groups. There is more information on the community bus network on Hampshire County Council's Community Transport pages, or you can go direct to the co-ordinators for buses in the Winchester District. This can reduce the number of cars coming to your event, and also provide transport for those who might otherwise find it hard to get to your event.

Winchester City Council is the primary contact for all special events being organised within the Winchester District. However, there are a number of other organisations which play a key role in assessing and approving Traffic Management Plans, including the Highway Authority - Hampshire County Council (the Traffic Authority), the Police, the emergency services and the Highways Agency.

Please note: A TMP should be planned and implemented by qualified operatives. By law, anybody putting out Traffic Management infrastructure needs to be qualified, or under the direction of somebody who is. It is advisable to use a qualified individual to design your Traffic Management Plan to ensure smooth implementation on the day. The police could shut down the event if it was felt the traffic planning was inadequate and causing safety issues.

The Winchester District Safety Advisory Group (SAG) liaises with organisers of public events that are planned to take place in the Winchester City Council area.

The aim of the group is to ensure that large public events are safely and well managed. The SAG aims are:

• To promote high levels of safety control at events;
• To promote the well being of public at those events; and
• To ensure events cause minimal inconvenience to local residents.

The SAG will consider large scale public events where more than 1,000 people are expected to attend, although smaller events may require the involvement of the SAG depending on the event. Typical events may include pop concerts, carnivals, parades, firework displays etc, some of which may require a premises licence under the Licensing Act 2003.

The Safety Advisory Group (SAG) comprises officers from:

• Winchester City Council - Legal, Licensing, Environment, Tourism, Engineers and Building Control
• Hampshire County Council - Emergency Planning Unit, Environment (Highways, Traffic Management)
• Hampshire Constabulary - Operational Planning
• Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service - Fire Safety
• South Central Ambulance Service (NHS Trust)

Event Organisers are likely to be invited to a SAG meeting. They may be asked about their experience and competence in managing events and will be required to present their plans. To demonstrate that they are managing an event well and have sufficient plans in place, Event Organisers will be required to submit a site plan, together with their Event Management Plan (EMP) and Traffic Management Plan (TMP).

The nature and complexity of EMP/TMPs depends on the type and scale of an event. At a smaller event, a Traffic Management Plan might be incorporated into the Event Management Plan or at a larger event where more detail required, kept separate. Both plans are working documents that may be revised several times. It is therefore important to ensure that they are indexed.

After the event, organisers may be invited back to a SAG meeting to review and evaluate the event.

Organisation	Telephone		Email
Winchester City Council
Licensing	01962 848 188		licensing@winchester.gov.uk
Contact the licensing team if you intend to serve or sell alcohol, provide regulated entertainment or provide late night refreshment at your event. You’ll also need to contact licensing if your event will attract over 500 people, even if you aren’t providing the activities previously listed.
Health & Safety	01962 848 097		eh@winchester.gov.uk
Contact the environmental health team to discuss your plans, particularly to ensure you have the relevant measures in place for noise pollution, environmental protection and food safety.
Tourism	01962 848 361		events@winchester.gov.uk
If you would like to advertise your event on Visit Winchester, contact the tourism team.
Parking	01962 848 346		parking.services@hants.gov.uk
If you require any (off-street) suspended parking bays for your event, contact the parking team.
Hampshire County Council
Highways	0845 6035633		https://www.hants.gov.uk/transport/licencesandpermits/events
Contact Hampshire Highways to discuss your event if it involves closing roads, suspending on-street parking bays or putting signage or decoration on or near the highway.
Emergency Planning	01962 846846		emergency.planningteam@hants.gov.uk
If you need help, advice or support developing your emergency plans, contact emergency planning.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service
Fire Safety	01962 877 542		winchester.tfs@hantsfire.gov.uk
If you need help, advice or support developing your fire safety plans, contact Hampshire Fire.
Hampshire Constabulary
Central Operational Planning			central.operational.planning@hampshire.pnn.police.uk
If you need help, advice or support from the police in relation to your event, contact the operational planning team at Hampshire Constabulary.
South Central Ambulance Service
Emergency Planning			emergency.planning@scas.nhs.uk
If you need help, advice or support developing your emergency plans, contact emergency planning.

The following websites and documents will be useful when planning an event:

Guidance on a range of topics including:

• Broadcasting
• Crowd management
• Electrical Safety
• Fairgrounds
• Fire Safety
• Fireworks
• Inflatables
• Manual Handling
• Motorsport events
• Noise Management
• PAT Testing
• Slips, Trips and Falls
• Temporary structures
• Use of Barriers
• Violence towards staff
• Waste Management
• Working at height

The Purple Guide is designed to provide guidance for event organisers, suppliers, local authorities and others involved in the outdoor events industry. There is a subscription of £25 plus VAT for 12 months access to the Purple Guide. There is also a purple guide lite which is suitable for organisers of smaller events.

Public Health pack for Mass Events Guidance designed to help event organisers plan for and manage an outbreak of key infectious diseases in a mass gathering environment.

Accessible Events Guide  - A guide to promote good practice amongst festivals and events.  The guide is also intended to complement other existing resources such as the ISAN Access Toolkit.

Street Party - Useful information for organisers of smaller community-based events

Events - Winchester City Council - Listings of events happening across Winchester District

Events - Visit Winchester - Listings of events happening across Winchester District

Community Transport - Information about lift sharing services, minibus hire etc across Hampshire.

Roads and Highways in Winchester - Information about road use in Winchester, including applying for a road closure, walking and cycling routes and public transport information