Public welfare and environmental protection

Public welfare and environmental protection

There are many activities at events with respect to public welfare and environmental protection that must be considered. These include:

• Provision of toilet facilities
• Medical care for audience
• Alcohol-related issues (drugs & other substances)
• Wholesome water supply
• Catering and food safety
• Animal droppings
• Child safety
• Pollution control - noise
• Pollution control – obtrusive lighting
• Waste/litter
• Dogs at events and in the Countryside
• Sea, waterway and river biosecurity
• Beaches and water safety
• Filming and drones

Medical care for audience

Make sure you will have enough medical assistance and ambulances onsite and liaise with your local NHS and ambulance service so they can balance your needs against their local capacity.

Except for small, low-risk events where ambulances may not be required, and at events where they are not onsite, plans should be drawn up in conjunction with the local NHS ambulance service to clarify how patients will be taken to hospital. The Events Industry Forum’s Purple guide (opens in a new tab) includes example first-aid and medical assessments for an audience at an event.

Provision of toilet facilities

Ensure that adequate sanitary provision is made for the number of people expected to attend your event, including provision for people with disabilities.

Where possible, locate toilets at different points around the venue rather than in just one area to minimise crowding and queuing problems.

Toilets should also be provided with hand washing facilities, including hot water and soap and towels, particularly any facilities that are provided for food handlers.

The following table shows the general guidelines for provision of welfare facilities:

For events with a gate opening time of 6 hours or more

• Female: 1 toilet per 100 females. 
• Male: 1 toilet per 500 males, plus 1 urinal per 150 males.

For events with a gate opening time of less than 6 hours duration

• Female: 1 toilet per 150 females. 
• Male: 1 toilet per 600 males, plus 1 urinal per 175 males.  

For further details on sanitary facilities provisions refer to BS 6465: Part 1 2006 or the Purple guide (opens in a new tab).  

Alcohol-related issues (drugs & other substances)

If participants or spectators at your event will be drinking alcohol it is important that you consider the potential impacts and risk of this.

Having alcoholic drinks at an event doesn't have to pose health risks as long as precautions are taken.  If a person replenishes with water they can reduce the risk of dehydration and heat exhaustion.

Stewards or marshals should be trained to spot signsof heat exhaustion early on. For guidance on the signs see: NHS (opens in a new tab)  

To help reduce alcohol-fuelled or drug-related anti-social behaviour think about having:

• chill-out areas
• free water points.

Wholesome water supply

The guidelines for the provision of temporary drinking water supplies at events publication is intended for use by organisers of large events such as the Eisteddfod, agricultural shows or carnivals that require a temporary supply from a public or private source or from tankers or bowsers.

It is applicable to all events that require a new connection to the water supply as well as events that connect to an existing supply, e.g. annual events taking place on the same showground.

For further guidance see private water supplies appendix in the event organiser’s checklist.

Catering and food safety

Get local caterers on board and source local produce whenever possible.

Event organisers should ensure that all food concessions and other caterers are registered with a local authority as a food business operator.

In addition to being registered, it is strongly recommended that organisers should check that all caterers have a food hygiene rating of 3 or above. This can be checked: Food Standards Agency (FSA) (opens in a new tab)

A list of names, addresses, contact details and details of food hygiene rating of all food concessions (including those giving away food as part of a demonstration) should be provided to the Food safety team 21 days prior to the event.

There is limited value in obtaining food hygiene training certificates as they are not a requirement and not all (especially low risk businesses) will have them.

Catering units should be sensibly positioned such as away from children’s activity areas and near to water supplies etc.

Adequate space should be left between catering facilities to prevent any risk of fire spread.

It is also good practice to have separate toilet facilities for food handlers which is provided with hand washing facilities, including hot water and soap and towels. You should also ensure, when appointing food business, that they have their own facilities within their stalls, units, etc., for washing hands, equipment and where necessary, food, including arrangements for the provision/storage of hot water at their food stall that they will be using during the course of the event.

Please see link to outdoor catering checklist and The Nationwide Caterers Association (NCASS) (opens in a new tab). The NCASS is a nationally recognised trade association for mobile catering, outside catering, event and street food catering. In addition to other useful information, their website contains two guides on liquid petroleum gas safety for trailers/ converted vans & marquee/ tent /stall scenarios.

Please contact our Food safety team for further information if required at foodsafety@pembrokeshire.gov.uk or 01437 764551.

The sale of food or goods on the highway will need street trading consent. Please contact our Streetcare team on 01437 765441 or  streetcare@pembrokeshire.gov.uk

Animal droppings

Those planning recreational use of animal pasture (those used for grazing animals) should be aware of the potential risks associated with E.Coli 0157.  Children are especially at risk.

Ideally to completely avoid risk of infection by E.Coli 0157 from this source, fields used for grazing or stockholding of animals should not be used for camping, picnicking and play areas.

The risks can be greatly reduced by adopting the following sensible precautions:

• Keep farm animals off the fields three weeks prior to use;
• Remove any visible droppings, ideally at the beginning of the three week period;
• Mow the grass, keep it short and remove the clippings before the fields are used for recreation;
• Keep farm animals off fields during use;
• Remind people to wash their hands before eating, drinking and smoking and provide facilities for them to do this.

Guidance on the recreational use of pasture land (opens in a new tab)

Child safety

You need to consider if your event needs a lost child station.  

All staff at the lost child station should be registered under the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

A register of all lost children/persons should be maintained which includes:

• date and time of when reported lost
• lost persons details (name, date of birth)
• details of who they were with 
• details of when and where they were last seen.

Once a missing person has been reported:

• Put out a message for the parents/guardian to report to the station as soon as possible. Think about how this can be done at your event.
• DBS staff should then check the persons ID to ensure they are the parents/guardian.
• At all times the DBS staff must update the event organisers with details.

Pollution control – obtrusive lighting

If not properly controlled, obtrusive lighting can cause nuisance for others. 

Due to relatively low levels of light pollution Pembrokeshire has spectacular night skies, key partners in Pembrokeshire including the National Park Authority strive to keep our stars shining bright. If your event runs into the evening think about how you can reduce light pollution by lighting what people need to see such as the ground rather letting light spill up into the sky – you are likely to reduce your energy costs and enhance the unique Pembrokeshire ambience of your event.

The institution of lighting professionals – Guidance for the reduction of obtrusive light provides suggestions on how to minimise the problem.

Waste/litter

Events will almost always generate some waste mainly food and drink containers and removing this needs to be a key part of your event planning.

Always try to reduce the amount of waste at your event by thinking of refusing, reducing, reusing, recycling, repurposing or rotting the resources you chose to use. 

You should:

• Organise bins for both litter and recyclable waste, inside and outside your event.
• Arrange extra cleaning of your event site and the area around your event setting, both during and after your event.
• Encourage participants to be responsible with their litter and waste throughout your event.
• Motivate and equip staff and volunteers to manage your waste and to help participants dispose of their waste and litter at your event.
• Organise for a group of enthusiastic local volunteers to clean-up after your community event.

For further guidance on waste management for the event see: WRAP (opens in a new tab) 

For further information on waste and recycling please contact the Waste management team on 01437 764551 or wasteandrecycling@pembrokeshire.gov.uk

Dogs at events and in the countryside

If your event welcomes dogs it is advised that you ask people to be responsible owners and follow these steps to keep pets and people safe and protect the environment:

• Offer free dog poop bags and advise participants that if they don’t pick up dog mess they will be asked to leave the event.
• Remember dogs should not be left in cars in hot weather.
• Dogs to be kept under control so that they do not scare people, or disturb farm animals, birds or other wildlife.
• If walking over access land (designated open country or common land), dogs must be kept on a short lead between 1 March and 31 July - and should be on leads all year round near livestock - and to abide by any additional signage that may advise dog owners on restrictions (Countryside & Rights of Way Act 2000).
• Advise dog owners to put dogs on a lead on public paths, especially on the coast path where the risk of falls is high.
• Always keep dogs on a lead if owners cannot rely on its obedience.
• Remember that by law, farmers are entitled to destroy a dog that injures or worries their animals.
• If a farm animal chases whilst with your dog, it is safer to let the dog off the lead – and don't risk getting hurt by trying to protect it.

Sea, waterway and river biosecurity

If your event either uses waterways like rivers or bodies of water like the sea or inland lakes then it is advised that you ask participants to be aware of biosecurity. If people are bringing their own water craft such as boats or kayaks or other equipment such as fishing rods and bait then care needs to be taken to ensure that both diseases and invasive (non-native) are not spread. Everyone visiting a water body is responsible for helping to avoid the spread of non-native species on their clothes, equipment and everything else that comes into contact with water.

Guidance is available at GB non-native species secretariat (opens in a new tab)  which sets out simple instructions that can help everyone prevent the accidental transfer of non-native species. A number of “stop the spread” posters are also downloadable in both Welsh and English languages.

Beaches and water safety

Pembrokeshire is proud to have the highest number of award beaches in Wales. 

For information about beaches quality awards and lifeguard information see: Beaches and water safety

Any event planned for an award beach should not impact on the criteria (e.g. partial dog bans on blue flag beaches). Award criteria (as well as awarded beaches) can be found at: Keep Tidy Wales (opens in a new tab) 

Filming and drones

Drone use is growing at a rapid rate in the UK and our skies are some of the busiest anywhere in the world. Some landowners such as the National Trust do not allow the use of drones on their land and so it is always worth checking. To help ensure that drone users in the UK are aware of how to fly their drones safely and legally, without endangering others or disturbing wildlife we advise that you abide by the following:

• Civil aviation guidance on drones (opens in a new tab)
• Drone safe (opens in a new tab) 
• Pembrokeshire multi-agency guidance for recreational drone use (opens in a new tab)
• National Trust guidance (opens in a new tab)