If you’re involved in keeping people safe at sports grounds, the Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) is seeking views on the final draft of the sixth edition of the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds. The finished document is due to come out in the summer.
Known as the Green Guide for short, it’s published once about every ten years. While the document does not have the force of law, as the SGSA says it’s used around the world by ground management, their professional advisers and the regulatory authorities to inform safety at sports grounds. The SGSA issues licences to those 94 stadia in England and Wales that enforce the Government’s all-seater policy.
The inspectors say that the sixth edition will take account of the advances in the design and safety management of sports grounds since the current edition was published in 2008. Consultation will close on Friday, April 27, at 1pm. You can download a draft copy of the 331-page document free, via the consultation page.
Like previous editions, the new Guide (which covers security and safety of football and related grounds, calling security strictly speaking a subset of safety) covers management and stewarding, circulation of spectators, their accessing and leaving the ground (ingress and egress), and site design – such as barriers, seats and standing; also communications and control, fire safety and first aid.
Visit http://sgsa.org.uk/guide-safety-consultation.
The current guide is also free to download.
Meanwhile the Authority is running a ‘Maintaining Vigilance in Safety’ Conference at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester on Thursday, April 19. Speakers include Ken Scott, the SGSA’s chief inspector, and senior policewoman Lucy D’Orsi, of Counter Terrorism Policing National HQ. Topics include the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 (to be hosted by England and Wales); persistent standing at all-seater grounds, a bugbear at top-level football matches; fire safety; the GDPR (general data protection regulation, coming into force in May); and counter terrorism, such as how to counter hostile reconnaissance.
Picture by Mark Rowe; outside Barnsley FC.
