Council Supports Three Remembrance Parades in Rhondda Cynon Taf

The council is taking a new approach to Remembrance parades in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) by funding three of them with organisations funding road closures for other parades themselves.
An officer decision is that the council supports and delivers three Remembrance service parades across RCT in Aberdare, Pontypridd and Tonypandy.
The council will also liaise with town and community councils to see if they can offer financial support to cover the cost of delivering any parades/road closures that take place in their communities.
Costs could include things like staffing the implementation of the road closure and risk assessment.
The council will communicate with organisers to confirm this position and ask if they want to arrange parades/road closures themselves.
The council would cover the cost of the traffic order but if they want the council to help with the road closure there would be a cost.
The decision report said that due to the current financial situation, the council has needed to review all services and funding to achieve savings.
The proposal would see the council save around £8,000 per year.
The council has in the past provided staffing and resources to implement road closures and preparation in advance around things like traffic orders and risk assessments across RCT.
Where a parade has taken place, the costs have been picked up by the council in the past, as arranging Remembrance events and/or parades is a civic duty for local authorities and The Royal British Legion (‘RBL’) and other parties support and attend these civic events.
The decision report said a parade is not the Remembrance event in itself and that it is very common to have a Remembrance event that does not include a parade on the public highway.
Some road closures are for the minutes silence and others are because of parades or the proximity to major highways.
The report said that in RCT there are a large number of events across the area, some with parades and some without.
The council are aware of at least 30 Remembrance events that take
place across RCT and of these 12 currently have parades/road closures as part of the event.
The report said that the council is committed to funding the three Remembrance service parades in Aberdare, Pontypridd and Tonypandy.
It said that options going forward could be for branches of the RBL or other parties to become part of these larger scale parades or retain a local event themselves without an on-road parade/road closure.
The other option, if a parade continues, would be for organisations to continue with parades with the council assisting at a cost or organisations arranging their own risk assessments, insurance and any other costs. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

By BBC LDRS ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​