New service
External operations and community liaison
The operation outside your gates: the transport points, routes and neighbourhoods your event touches, planned, managed and logged, with OTAS staff where you want them.
Planned remotely, with on-site teams for the live days, across the UK and internationally. Every job is priced in a written quote.
We run the external operation and plan it with your licensed contractors.
OTAS Live plans and runs the external operation around your event: the transport points, walking and driving routes, car parks and the area along the perimeter, and the response to residents and businesses next to the site. For many people outside the gates, that area is their only contact with your event, and the police, the council and the licensing authority watch it closely. Security of the perimeter stays with your SIA-licensed security contractor.
Who it is for
- Events with neighbours, schools or businesses close to the site
- Events where most of the audience arrives by public transport or on foot
- Events with past complaints, licensing conditions or SAG questions about the area around the site
Our method
How we run it, step by step
Map
We walk and map the external area: transport points, routes, car parks, pinch points and the homes and businesses the event touches.
Plan
We write the external operations plan, with routes, transport points, call signs, positions and contingencies.
Inform
We prepare information for residents and businesses, with answers to the questions they ask, and take part in multi-agency meetings before the event.
Run
We brief external teams, drawn from OTAS or your own staff, and put them in position on routes and at transport points. We run the event's resident and business line (a number or email you provide) to a written process and log every contact through Event Control.
Review
We review every complaint and incident in the debrief and set out what changes for the next edition.
Deliverables
What you receive
External operations plan
The external area mapped, with routes, transport points, call signs, positions and contingencies.
Resident and business information
Plain information with answers to the questions people ask, prepared before the event.
A logged contact line
The event's resident and business line run to a written process, with every contact logged through Event Control.
A written record
How the external area was run, for your debrief, the licensing authority and the next SAG.
What OTAS does at each level
| Level | What OTAS does |
|---|---|
| Operational | We brief external teams, drawn from OTAS or your own staff, and put them in position at transport points and on footways, walking routes and pinch points, where they give people information and directions on foot and report problems to Event Control. They do not guard the perimeter, control access or stop or direct vehicles on public roads. Perimeter security stays with your SIA-licensed security contractor. We run the event's resident and business line (a number or email you provide) to a written process and log every contact through Event Control, staffed by OTAS or by your team. OTAS staff work as stewards, information staff and liaison only. Problems that are not security matters are fixed on the ground or passed to the right contractor through Event Control. Anything involving disorder, damage, theft, a search or entry goes at once to your SIA-licensed security contractor. |
| Tactical | An External Operations Manager runs the outside of the event on the day. They direct OTAS's own external teams and agree the external plan with your traffic, security and stewarding contractors, whose own supervisors manage their staff. OTAS does not manage or supervise SIA-licensed staff. The External Operations Manager links Event Control with the police, the council and transport operators. Live changes off the road, such as moving a queue or opening another walking route, are made inside agreed limits and escalated to you. Anything on a public road is passed at once to your traffic management contractor and the police. |
| Strategic | We write an external operations plan that maps the external area, with routes, transport points, call signs, positions and contingencies. We prepare information for residents and businesses, with answers to the questions they ask, and take part in multi-agency meetings before the event. The debrief then reviews every complaint and what changes for the next edition. |
- How it is delivered
- This is hybrid work. The external operations plan and the community information are written in the months before, then OTAS manages the external operation on site for the live days, and for any build and break days that affect neighbours.
- What you get
- One plan and one log for everything outside the gates.
- Residents and businesses with a named route into the event, and answers that are followed up.
- A written record of how the external area was run, for your debrief, the licensing authority and the next SAG.
- Price
- Every job is priced in a written scope and quote. Request a quote, or get the rate card by email.
- What is not included
- OTAS does not run traffic management on public roads, supply SIA-licensed staff, provide security guarding, door supervision or access control, or direct police, council or transport staff. Road closures, traffic orders and licensed traffic management stay with your appointed contractors and the authorities. OTAS is not the licence holder and does not give legal advice on licence conditions.
Prices
External Operations and Community Liaison prices
| Post or item | Price |
|---|---|
| External Operations Manager | £450 a day |
| External team member (crossing, transport and route points)* | £28.00 an hour |
| Resident and business line operator* | £32.50 an hour |
| External operations summary and resident letter | From £525 |
| Residents' line starter (resident letter and log set-up plus three 8-hour operator shifts) | From £1,325 |
A planned shift is up to 12 hours, including handover. 24-hour or overnight cover is a second shift, not one long day. If a day runs over, which is the exception and not the plan, time over the planned shift is charged per hour or part hour at the overtime rate on our rate card, agreed on the day and confirmed in writing. No one works more than 16 hours on site, and the next shift starts after at least 11 hours' rest. Minimum on-site booking: £1,075 (one manager day and one planning day). Night, bank holiday and short-notice rates, overtime, discounts and expenses are on the full rate card.
*Supplied only alongside an External Operations Manager booking, with an 8-hour minimum. Where your own stewarding or security contractor can supply the team, our External Operations Manager briefs and leads them instead.
Every job is scoped and confirmed in writing before it starts.
Prices are the full price you pay.
Rate card
Get the OTAS rate card
Our rates for on-site work, planning, remote consultancy and fixed-price documents are set out on one page. Leave your email and we will send it to you from kris@otas.live.
- It is sent by a person, not a mailing tool.
- There are no cookies and no tracking.
- We use your details only as set out in our privacy notice.
Further reading
Read how we think about it
These OTAS Live handbooks cover the work behind this service.
Questions
Questions clients ask
What are external operations at an event?
Everything between the transport points and your licensed boundary: the routes people walk and drive, the car parks, the area along the perimeter and the streets and businesses next to the site. External operations plan and coordinate that area as one operation, with security and traffic on public roads left to your licensed contractors and the authorities, joined to Event Control.
How do you handle complaints from residents?
We run the event's resident and business line (a number or email you provide) to a written process and log every contact through Event Control, staffed by OTAS or by your team. Each contact is passed to whoever can fix it, followed up and reviewed in the debrief.
Do you close roads or run traffic management?
No. Road closures, traffic orders and traffic management on public roads stay with your licensed contractor and the authorities. We plan around them, link them to Event Control and hold the external plan together.
Can this run alongside your other services?
Yes. External operations report into Event Control like every other OTAS function, so the room keeps one picture of the site and the area around it.
Related services
Next step
Tell us about your event
Send us the dates, the site and the gap in your team. We will reply with a written scope and quote that sets out the posts, the days, the outputs, the price and what OTAS does not do.