To be disappointed at poor response re street party

[Geminijust]

Smallish, quiet street, approx 45 houses, generally pretty friendly. Neighbour & I thought it might be nice to throw a party for the coronation. Council encouraging it by offering road closures & free insurance.

Sent out a note with a return slip asking people to say if they would interested, if they would be willing to help and inviting comments & suggestions. Gave them 2 weeks to respond. Deadline has passed and we have 17 responses, all positive, but that's less than half the street! AIBU to think it's really disappointing and actually rather rude :-(

Think we're going to send text to those that bothered to respond thanking them but, as we don't have a majority, informing them we will not be proceeding.

😐

My little hamlet does these kind of things, open gardens, jubilee etc. They send out similar forms, and if they don’t get enough positive responses immediately they send out another saying ‘DUE TO LACK OF INTEREST WE’LL HAVE TO CANCEL’.

Surely if almost half want to do it, those of you who want to do it, can do it? There’s no need to get stroppy about everyone else

This is also what I wanted to say but you got there first

17 responses is loads! I think you should consider if there's another way of obtaining consent for the road closures, etc., because 17 positive responses sounds like a great amount to have a good street party. I'm no royalist, but I have very happy childhood memories of the street party my neighbourhood had for the golden jubilee years ago.

I would rather pull my teeth out with a rusty pair of pliers than attend. I think 17 is wayyy more than anyone would have expected. Except you of course.

Also, no-one is going to return a form posted through their door saying ‘not interested’, they just won’t reply. That’s not rude, it’s just how it works.

Sounds like my idea of hell tbh.

Exactly.

17 is a lot anyway.

You’ve made an effort for your benefit because this is something you want.

For those who are not interested, this is an inconvenient for them due to noise and road closures.

You seem to think that, just because it’s something you want, everyone should be grateful that you’re organising it.

17 responses is pretty good. Many, many people including myself really don’t care about the coronation. So maybe the people who did not reply feel the same.

You're not unreasonable to feel disappointed. You are unreasonable to expect people who aren't interested to respond. It's not rude. They owe you nothing.

Not interested doesn’t mean they’re against it.

I’m not interested in the coronation street party my neighbours are proposing, but happy for them to crack on and no issue with the road closure etc. I haven’t explicitly told them that, though. I’d assume anyone who DID have a problem with the party going ahead would say so?

17 + 2 of you is a majority though? And no actual objections? You can probably press ahead.

"The average royal upkeep per annum cost UK taxpayers around £500 million, but Brand Finance estimates that the monarchy contributes £2.5 billion to the British economy in the same period"

Figures from 2022. Hardly no contribution is it.

I think it's a really good response. I'd drop a note through the doors saying you've had this response and if anyone objects to the road being closed, then they have a number of days to respond to you and let you know. Otherwise you'll go ahead and make the application.

Agree, half the street is loads. People are busy. Unfortunately, responding to a random neighbour about a street party wouldn't be high on my to do list. Some also might be interested but unable to contribute financially. Some might do shift work and not know of they're free or not.

If you've not had any objections I'd carry on with the plan.

Did you state in your query that the party would result in a road closure, and that this was their chance to raise objections? You might get a more accurate count if you included that info.

17 households does sound great for a party!

I have organised quite a few community events in the past, including the Jubilee street party. 17 houses is more than enough people to organise it. In my experience, lots of people want to attend but aren't in a position to /aren't generally inclined to help organise advance stuff but will be happy to help on the day. Some people just forget to fill in the form etc. Your next step is to meet with those who responded, divvy up the tasks and put another note through doors with more details including road closure and a number for anyone for whom the closure might be a problem to contact so you can make arrangements if they need access during the party.

Yeah 17 is loads! Street parties are just not everyone's thing. At all.

We had a street party here for the jubilee that I did make an effort to turn up for, for the sake of neighbourly relations. It constituted a couple of women serving up lukewarm squash and shop bought cake while we all stood around making awkward small talk. Not something I'd want to do again tbh.

Oh, and I agree with PP, give them a deadline to respond on the road closure question.

If i had a message about this, i would not respond as i dont like monarchy, but i wouldnt expect people to not throw a party either. I just dont give a shit. Do a party or dont do a party.

So you stick a note through everyone's door the week before letting them know the street will be closed between x time & y time for the street party

You've got plenty of interest to warrant going ahead

If people did not want the road closed they would have contacted you and told you.
Lots of people have lots going on in their life and would have forgotten to respond. People who are seriously ill, with seriously ill family members, money problems, etc etc.
You seem to think people are deliberately not responding when maybe their life difficulties mean that things like this are not a priority for them either way.

Some of the young families on my block take over the street twice a year and I hate it. The street is shut so I have to park on a side road, the noise and commotion are right out front.

My position is that they all have gardens, use them for entertaining! Or a nearby park.

That said, it's early days for people to commit to a Saturday in May. You might have better response at the end of March.

To be honest I don't know if I'm free next weekend, I wouldn't want to commit to something in May. I might get a better off basically

This