|
|
|
New Licensing Act Fails to Deter Festival Organiser January saw festival organisers Andy & Suzi Norman began organising the 6th Thimbleberry Music Festival on 23rd to 25 June 2006 at a remote hill farm in Co. Durham. It takes time to organise 30 acts including live bands and comedy, arrange facilities for 1,000 people, advertise run a poster campaign and a myriad of other tasks but they have set themselves the challenge of Keeping Music Live.
Thimbleberry has always been a licensed event, in previous years the Alcohol license was easily obtained and without any undue stress from the Magistrates’ Court. The Entertainment Licence was issued by Wear Valley District Council, but it was always granted at the last possible moment and sometimes with new conditions.
New Legislation ‘The Licensing Act 2003’ which came into force during November 2005 meant that Wear Valley District Council was to licence Alcohol, Live Music, Recorded Music, Dancing and even Late Night Cafes but there was worse… the new equivalent to the licences previously granted are called ‘Temporary Event Notices’ (TENs) and only cover a maximum of 500 people which is not at all useful when you have over 200 artists etc! So the same licence needed for a pub or nightclub a ‘Premises Licence’ had to be sought.
A premises licence application was submitted on 25th April 2006, 8 weeks before the festival was due to start. It was returned for a plan of the site at scale 100:1. Mr Norman pointed out that the plan would be 9ft by 6ft (it was in fact 2.6metres by 1.98metres) and would be 100 sheets of A4 paper. Seven days solid work produced a multi layered Photoshop document with Fire Routes, Fences, Toilets, Marquees, Fire Escapes Stages, Stalls etc on individual layers and it was duly sent as an attachment to the seven responsible authorities. Alas, the Council’s Computer System removes picture attachments so it didn’t arrive. The application went forward without the requested plan completed with so much hard work.
Giving 28 days notice of the premises application entailed a £400 advert in the local paper, blue notices pinned on telegraph poles and fences everywhere around the site and a whole host of other jobs this resulted in the 28days notice period finishing on the 8th June 2006 15 days before the festival was due to start.. There was no news for a week then on the 15th June a recorded delivery letter arrived dated 12th June but not posted until 14th June (I’ve no idea why there was a delay) stating that a hearing was arranged for the 5th July, which was 11 days after the festival was due to start. A meeting was arranged with Wear Valley District Council’s head of public protection Mr Tom Carver for Friday 16th June but it was postponed until 19th June. It was a good meeting and a pre hearing review was arranged for 10am 21st June. At the hearing everyone gave ground and an agreement was reached by all save one, Senior Environmental Health Officer (Pollution) David Dribben who would not yield an inch. Andy Norman left the meeting practically in tears…… no license, no hope and only 48hrs to go.
Farmer Plans Illegal Festival With hundreds of revellers coming from all over the country, musicians from New Orleans and Europe Mr Norman’s only option was (in the words of The Beautiful South) to carry on regardless.
The festival was superb, no trouble and only one complaint. However there was no bar because the council rang around stopping anyone selling alcohol by threatening prosecution and the loss of their Personal Licence (yet another licence needed to sell alcohol)…. And the biggest nuisance according to the neighbours?… THE POLICE HELICOPTER with search light which noisily hovered above the site at enormous cost. WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY.
The sub committee hearing for the Premises Licence is 2pm 5th July 2006 11 days too late………….
….to be continued press release 3 July 2006 |
|
