Organisers of a Montrose Christmas community event have branded Angus Council ”scrooge” after being landed with a bill for over £400 for a road closure order.
Montrose Events, the group behind organising the Angus town’s Christmas Extravaganza, are refusing to pay the bill for last year’s event which is more than double the amount they were charged in 2010.
The council has explained the increased bill is due to a hike in its road closure order administration fee to £300 plus VAT agreed last year as part of new budget control measures.
But Montrose Events secretary Tommy Stewart has ripped up the bill saying: ”No one told me about this increase. From what I have been told, there are councillors who didn’t know about this either.
”I have no intention of paying such an astronomical sum for what amounts to no more than 12 words in a newspaper advertisement.
”This is a huge blow for us. We have a long hard slog to raise money to put on this event. The costs are horrendous.
”We have to pay £1,200 to the national roads agency Bear Scotland for putting in the ‘road closed’ signs and we have to rely heavily on local businesses for sponsorship.
”That and our charges to the stallholders has been our only way of bringing in any money.
”Now there is a community grant scheme and we can apply for funds to help cover costs, but there is no guarantee we would get anything. It’s a fixed pot, and could well be used up by bigger events.
”For the council to bump up the costs like this is just disgraceful. This is no way to treat community groups trying to give a seasonal boost to the economy of Angus.”
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The only other organisation to be billed the revised fee, Mr Stewart has discovered, is Arbroath FC for a major Scottish Cup match last year against Rangers which required traffic restrictions.
He said: ”A football club is a commercial organisation and in a different league altogether. For community groups, such as ourselves, surely the council needs to revisit this and rethink whether we are being given fair value?”
Montrose High Street and Murray Street are closed to traffic for the Extravaganza which takes place in the town annually on a Sunday, as the shops open for an extra day’s trade in the run-up to Christmas.
There are various street entertainments and activities organised to make it a fun family outing.
”All the road closure order entails is for the council to say yes or no, then if it agrees, to place an advertisement to that effect in the local newspaper,” said Mr Stewart. ”Where is the huge administration cost involved in that?”
A spokeswoman for Angus Council said charges for temporary traffic restriction orders had been changed in 2011 to reflect the significant costs being incurred to undertake promotion of such orders.
In previous years, applicants for these orders had only been charged for the cost of the statutory publication of the notice and a small additional admin charge.
For all events which require an order to be published in the press the charge is now £300 plus VAT.
She said: ”In 2011, Angus Council included the publication of notice of the temporary restriction associated with the Montrose Extravaganza in a larger notice and was able to pass on the savings in the publication costs.”
She added that the council did not charge organisers for the promotion of certain temporary restriction orders including events associated with Christmas lights switch-ons and Remembrance Day gatherings and parades.
Also, to help the organisers of local events meet logistical costs, an events fund had now been established.