Coordinating street party closures for the Coronation of Charles III

The lead up to the Coronation of Charles III has seen councils across the UK busily working to support residents by planning and organising the road closures necessary for resident street parties.

It’s a process which requires seamless coordination to ensure disruption for the rest of the traveling public is kept to a minimum. 

West Sussex County Council, for example, has received over 200 applications. Each of these has been submitted by public individuals and then forwarded on by district boroughs. Now, Laura Faith, Events Network Permit Officer, leads efforts to review and coordinate applications, ensuring approved closures are communicated back to the district boroughs, local stakeholders, including the general public. one.network is playing a vital role in helping this happen. 

For each application, Laura uses one.network to identify any potential conflicts, including clashes with bus routes and hospital entrances, as well as to determine any requests for A road closures which would have too great an impact on the network. 

Once this has been assessed, Laura creates and publishes each closure on the one.network map via our Traffic Management module, alongside accompanying documentation, which is then freely visible to the public. These are displayed as ‘Royal Events’ on the map to help people easily distinguish these closures in comparison to regular planned road maintenance activity. 

After the final order has been sealed, Laura also uses one.network to set up automatic email alerts that notify all key stakeholders and help ensure awareness. 

As the big day draws nearer, residents will receive public notices which link directly to the permits where they can view the details of the closures on the user-friendly one.network map.

Previously, without one.network, this would have been a far more manual process, requiring manual list building of key stakeholders and multiple communication chains to make sure everybody who needed to be aware was kept up to date. 

Laura told us: “It would be a nightmare trying to do this without one.network.”

Now, West Sussex can be confident that the public and district boroughs have the essential information they need and can, at a quick glance, see how the planned closures might impact journeys and the network. 

Similarly, the Traffic team at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP) are hard at work using one.network to coordinate and process their street party closures for the Coronation. With a population pushing half a million, the team have also received over 200 applications across the council area. 

Andrew Brown, Traffic Team Leader, and his colleague Daniel Parsons, have together been using one.network to check crucial factors that impact approval of these closures, such as NSG information, road classification, accessibility, effect on local businesses and any clashes with planned road or street works. 

Another important consideration has been the potential impact on the network around the Bournemouth Vitality Stadium. With an AFC Bournemouth vs Chelsea match scheduled on the 6th of May – the same date as the Coronation – requests for street party road closures in the surrounding area have had to be carefully considered and alternative arrangements and adjustments put in place, to ensure limited disruption. 

Andrew told us: “one.network has been a great tool to help us enable communities to celebrate the King’s Coronation. It’s giving us the ability to plan and communicate all the street parties to the public and key stakeholders on an intuitive, easy-to-read map, and as a result, reducing the number of inbound queries we’re receiving.”

BCP has also noted how using one.network has helped improve, not only citizen engagement in the lead up to the Coronation, but also communication with businesses. Local supermarkets can now access a clear view of the closures in and around Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, helping them to plan their deliveries and make sure customers receive their orders. 

Both West Sussex and BCP Council have found the automated email alerts functionality to be instrumental in helping them notify the public, as well as all parish and town councils, of the street party road closures. BCP has even reported a significant reduction in the number of inbound queries they’ve received from the public and local councillors.

Overall, for West Sussex and BCP alike, plus the many other councils across the UK planning Coronation Street party closures, the one.network platform has enabled a simpler, much more efficient and effective process. 

Now, we’re looking forward to a weekend of successful street parties. Thank you to our customers for helping us all celebrate safely and with the minimum amount of disruption to the roads. 

If you’re a Traffic Management customer and would like some guidance on plotting street parties on the map with our Royal Event layer, please contact your Customer Success Manager or email support@one.network.

Or, if you’re interested to learn more Traffic Management, the wider one.network platform or any of its capabilities, please get in touch.