Polo In The Park 2009 Evaluation Report

Polo In The Park 2009 Evaluation Report

  1. Background
  2. World Polo approached the Council in June 2008 with the idea of using HurlinghamPark in Fulham for a brand new polo tournament. The idea was to design a World Series of polo matches with teams from across the world. The game would be updated and adapted to make it appeal to a different audience.

1.2.Following discussions with internal stakeholders and the Cabinet Member for Residents Services, it was agreed to enter into a one year contract with World Polo to allow them to hold the Polo In The Park 2009 event in HurlinghamPark. The contract was signed on 10th October 2008.

1.3.World Polo Ltd was set up by Daniel Fox-Davies to deliver Polo In The Park. It is World Polo’s plan to use 2009 as a test for the concept and then take the Polo World Series to other cities across the world. Discussions have been held between World Polo and Rome, New York, Buenos Aires and Paris to expand the Series in 2010.

  1. Ground Preparations
  2. One of the key benefits of having the event was to secure improvements to HurlinghamPark. The benefits include:
  3. Removal of the majority of the old cinder running track, the old sports D and long jump pit.
  4. Removal of the fence
  5. Intensive maintenance programme in the build up to and post event.

2.2.World Polo estimate that £200,000 was invested in preparing the ground and post event reinstatement.

2.3.Where the old cinder track, sports D and long jump pit have been removed, these areas have been turfed with a similar grass type to the existing park. All of the pitch area was treated with a weed killer. In addition a series of verti-draining operations were carried out to alleviate compaction on the site and the entire of the polo pitch was top dressed with a rye grass seed. Levelling of the area has also taken place.The seed mix and top dressing were agreed with the council in advance to ensure that they remained compatible with the site. Irrigation was applied to all treated areas of the site to ensure satisfactory establishment. The work was very successful and has significantly improved the quality of the surface where the polo pitch was. This sentiment has been echoed by the H&F Rugby Club and the park representative on the Hurlingham District Residents Association.

2.4.Recommendations for any future event regarding ground works include:

2.4.1.Clearly written contract specification for grounds works with programmed timetable for works to enable pre event and post event works to commence quickly.Ground works to cause minimal impact on park users. Specification to cover issues such as water usage and ensuring contractor returns to site to complete ongoing maintenance to the site up until the start of the sports season.

2.4.2.Review access to the park, particularly for vehicles bringing equipment on and off site before, during and after the event.

2.4.3.Consider permanent relocation of dog areas within the site to enable easier access for parks users during event build and to allow more flexibility for both the event and the site as a whole.

2.4.4.Clearly defined set of parks improvements as a result of pre and post event groundworks.

2.4.5.An element of budget to be set aside for parks staff time working on the event.

  1. Safety Advisory Group (SAG)
  2. As Polo In The Park is a large scale event, a SAG was established to advise on the safety aspects. The SAG was convened on the 15 April 2009 and brought together representatives from Met Police, London Fire Brigade, London Ambulance Service, City of London Veterinary Services, and the Council’s Public Protection & Safety, Corporate Safety, Events, Regulatory Services, Food Safety, Emergency Planning, Licensing, Environmental Protection, Health & Safety, Parks Constabulary and Highways teams.

3.2.The SAG were presented with the event management plan in advance of the meeting and World Polo presented their plans to the group. Full minutes of the SAG are attached in Appendix 1. Recommendations were made to World Polo which were actioned.

  1. Free and Reduced Ticket Ballot
  2. As part of the contract, 50 pairs of free tickets and 125 pairs of discounted tickets were made available for the competitive matches on the 5th and 6th June. In order to distribute the tickets fairly a ballot was held. The ballot for the free tickets was open to selected roads in the vicinity of the park and any H&F resident was eligible to enter the reduced price ticket ballot. Over 600 applications were made to the ballot and all (bar 8 pairs of Friday discounted tickets) were distributed to local residents.

4.2.This database of local applicants provided a useful marketing tool in the run up to the event particularly in promoting the message of using public transport to attend the event.

  1. The Event Build
  2. The event build began on Tuesday 26 May 2009 and took 10 days. Infrastructure on site included:
  • the construction of a 5,000 seat grandstand
  • the creation of hospitality areas, marquees and shopping village
  • Continued ground works and maintenance
  • Extensive outside broadcast and television production vehicles

5.2.Amendments to the plan

  • There were some variances to the event plan once the contractors were on site; the main one being having to restrict access to the park early on in the build in the interests of public safety. This was unfortunate as the Council had planned to keep as much of the park open as possible but restrictions were enforced until areas were deemed safe to access.

5.4 Recommendations

  • Review public access to the park – to maintain as much as possible whilst remaining safe
  • Review of vehicle access from Broomhouse Lane
  1. The Event
  2. The event took place over 3 days: Friday 5, Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2009
  • Friday was predominately a corporate clientele
  • Saturday was finals day and a sell out
  • Sunday was Hurlingham Park Polo Open Day, a free day for H&F residents
  • Over the 3 days of the event there were 23,000 visitors to HurlinghamPark. 6,500 on Friday, 10,000 on Saturday and 6,000 on Sunday.

6.2.Event Ticketing

  • World Polo sold tickets for the Friday and Saturday event predominantly through Ticketmaster
  • Tickets started from £15 for a ground pass and £35/£40 for a grandstand seat to £495 corporate hospitality

6.3.Event Content

  • 2 x polo matches per day
  • Televised coverage on the ‘largest screen in Europe’
  • Jousting displays
  • Met Police Equestrian Display team (Sat only)
  • Equestrian skills displays
  • Wooden horse polo taster
  • Army climbing wall and display
  • Children’s activities: Bouncy castle, face painting, balloon modelling, punch & judy
  • Various bars, hospitality and catering outlets
  • Shopping village and commercial exhibition stands

6.4.Hurlingham Park Polo Open Day ticketing

  • The Council’s Events Team distributed the free Sunday Open Day event tickets via:
  • Over 2000 to Borough schools
  • Over 4000 were collected by residents from Borough Libraries with over 3000 tickets for the Sunday collected from Fulham Library alone.
  • Over 800 tickets were distributed to park users and residents groups close to HurlinghamPark
  • Over 1000 tickets were obtained via Ticketmaster (£1.50 booking fee) via link on

6.5.Recommendations

  • Include residents promotion in specification
  • Traffic and parking – review the parking suspensions
  • In partnership with World Polo review the event programme, timings and site layout.
  1. The Event Breakdown
  2. Overview
  • The event breakdown took place over 5 days: Monday 8 until Friday 12 June 2009
  • Overall the event breakdown was well managed and conducted safely
  • Given the scale of the event, overall minimal damage occurred to the park. Ground damage and bleaching left from track way, vehicles and temporary structure was as expected. This was addresses in the re-instatement plan.
  • It should be noted that further damage to the grounds may have occurred if there had been adverse weather conditions in the run up, during and event breakdown period.

7.2.Recommendations

  • Review vehicle movements across the site to minimise damage to the site.
  1. Reinstatement
  2. In general, the majority of the park held up far better that anticipated. This was due to the work that was done prior to the event, during the event and good weather conditions.

8.2.Given the satisfactory condition of much of the park, most of the park could remain open for public use during the works, but areas of new seeding would be fenced off to allow for establishment. As part of the reinstatement the park received a rootzone top dressing, targeted repairs particularly where the grandstand and trackway were, verti-draining, overseeding,fertilisationandon going irrigation.There will be regular liaison with the Council and World Polo’s grounds contractor to advise on maintenance.

  1. Financial Position
  2. Below is a breakdown of the financial position relating to Polo In The Park 2009.

Financial position for Polo In The Park 2009
£
Income
Fee for using HurlinghamPark / 25,000
Fee for using Hurlingham Pavilion / 1,440
Total / 26,440
Expenditure
Legal Fees / 3,192
Waste fees / 2,667.43
Transport Costs (inc On-cost 27.5%) / 2,838.81
Total / 8,698.24
Grand Total / 17,741.76

9.2.Recommendation:

  • Waste and traffic management costs to be included as part of specification and to be met by World Polo.
  1. Community Consultation
  2. The Council has been keen to ensure regular communication and consultation with the residents and stakeholders of HurlinghamPark. Five meetings were held with stakeholders including the Hurlingham District Residents Association, PRARA, Fulham Society, Hurlingham Bowls Club and the H&F Rugby Club from October 2008 up until the event itself.

10.2.The Council organised two public consultation meetings with the local residents in the area on 20th and 26th November 2008 and attracted approximately 40 people. Points raised from this consultation included access to the park facilities during the event period, concerns regarding increased traffic in the local area, parking and free tickets.

10.3.In April 09 the Council produced in partnership with World Polo a residents newsletter, which was sent to 2200 households in and around HurlinghamPark.The newsletter included an FAQ section, reiterated the benefits of having the event, included a programme of the event and information about the open day and information evening. A copy of the newsletter is attached in Appendix 2.

10.4.Consultation is part of the premises licence application process. Signs were put up around the park and a notice placed in the Hammersmith & Shepherd’s BushGazette newspaper. No representations were made against the licence.

10.5.An information evening was held on 6th May 2009 where information about the event including plans of the site were made available and people were able to leave their details to be entered into the free and discounted ticket ballot. Approximately 30 people attended.

10.6.A review meeting was held on 16 June 2009 with stakeholders from the area to gather feedback on the event and to identify learning points should the event go ahead again next year. This feedback has been included in this report.

  1. Feedback after the event
  2. Safety Advisory Group
  3. The SAG met for its debrief on 16th June 2009. A number of consistent themes have emerged.

11.3.Lead in times need to be much longer so that emergency management plans, risk assessments and certificates can be submitted in good time. All agencies felt that the event was very successful. All agencies went a long way to try and keep the park open for as long as possible. World Polo were congratulated for the speed with which they addressed issues raised by the Event Liaison Team.

11.4.There were 14 treatment requests from London Ambulance during the event, 6 of which were staff and no hospitalisations. The Food Safety team were happy with the caterers on site. The bars were congratulated on their approach to handling under age drinking.

11.5.With regards to noise, it was commented that on the opposite side of the grandstand you could not hear any of the commentary, which in the event of an emergency broadcast would not have been good. The noise escape was very good though.

11.6.The waste management was resolved late on Friday 5 June but with a longer lead in time it will be easier to get a better waste management plan in place to improve recycling rates.

11.7.Parking arrangements changed late in the day. If the event were to go ahead next year, the parking arrangements would be reviewed. Carnworth Road could be a possibility for staff parking to minimise the number of vehicles on site. The Parson’s Green parking suspension did not work and was unnecessary. AA signage was in place but better signage was needed from PutneyBridge tube station and on the entrance to the park.Emphasis was placed on encouraging people to travel to the event using public transport. Messages were placed on the tickets, literature, the website and a message was sent out via Ticketmaster to those who had purchased from the Ticketmaster site.

11.8.It was noted that all partners worked very well together and that the reinstatement of the park was now the key issue.

11.9.Feedback from event attendees

11.10.In the week immediately following the event nine emails were received by the Events Team saying how much people had enjoyed the event. A selection are included below. Appendix 3 has the full selection of emails received.

Feedback from Polo In The Park 2009
Just to say thank you for my polo tickets. I loved watching the game - thank you so much for providing me with this opportunity.
I attended the Polo in the Park community day this Sunday and I wanted to say how much I enjoyed it. The venue was great and the organisation seemed excellent and I really hope that the event is repeated next year.
I would like to thank those involved and to congratulate the council for enabling all local residents to participate in such a splendid event.
Congratulations on hosting a fantastic event. It must have been the most enormous thing to organise and I feel it was a real coup for the Borough to host such an original event.

11.11.Feedback via survey

11.12.Following the event an electronic survey was created and circulated to approximately 600 email addresses that had registered with the Council for the free and reduced price ticket ballot and received free tickets for the Sunday. 164 responses have been received to date. The full breakdown of results in available in Appendix 4 and 5.

11.13.Headline results are:

  • 60% of attendees attended the Sunday event
  • 87% of responses had a SW6 postcode
  • 93% thought the event was good or very good
  • 84% said they would attend again.
  • 80% travelled by foot.
  • 50% heard about the event via H&F News, 35% by word of mouth and 28% by the residents newsletter.
  • Over 60% of respondents thought that the event had caused minimal impact to access to park facilities during event build & breakdown, traffic / parking, litter and noise. (Over 28% thought that the event had caused no impact and over 10% thought that the event had caused significant impact)
  • Over 67% of respondents thought there was considerable impact on improvements to the grounds, raising the profile of HurlinghamPark and improved trade for local businesses. (26% thought that the event had caused minimal impact and 7% thought that the event had caused no impact)

11.14.Feedback from Hurlingham District Residents Association (HDRA)

11.15.HDRA discussed the Polo in the Park event held two week's ago and provided the following comments:

  • “My congratulations also to you and indeed thanks for all your hard work. Generally, I think things went off very well and the majority of people thoroughly enjoyed the Polo. Just a few points:
  • Security: On the whole was good but on the Friday no one checked my ticket on entering.
  • Food:There was confusion as to whether or not one was permitted to take in food or drink into the park. On the website it mentions, "Separate picnic and grassed areas will be available pitchside for families". Then later on the tickets, it stated no food or drink allowed. The food provided by caterers appeared to be very popular if the long queues were any indication. Maintain more outlets should be provided in future to cater to the sizable numbers of attendees."World Polo" should consider the idea ofencouraging local restaurants to "set-up stall" for a fee of course. I think this would generate good will.
  • Toilets:More should be made available especially for the ladies where there were very long queues. Several made a run for the gents toilets!
  • Entertainment:In future, other entertainment should be considered between the Polo matches. I know we spoke about this from the very start, but Military band(s), Police Dog Handlers etc etc would be popular. The list could be endless.
  • Parking: The old chestnut. Signs regarding restrictions should be larger especially along the south side of Hurlingham Road, between Broomhouse Lane and the main gate to the park. When there were Police and security officers around there was no problem but when they not, there was some confusion.

11.16.Feedback from Peterborough Road and Area Residents Association (PRARA)