Agenda and draft minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 21 February 2024 were agreed and signed as a true record.

Guidance is available online to Councillors and co-opted members on making declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest.

Information on matters of urgency is available online

There were no matters of urgency.

To agree any items to be dealt with after the public (including the Press) have been excluded. Thereare no itemswhich officersrecommendshould be dealtwithin thisway.

There were no confidential / exempt items.

The meeting was a hearing under the Licensing Act 2003.

The Chair introduced the members of the Sub Committee and the Officers present.

The Sub Committee’s Legal Advisor, Giles Salter, outlined the procedure for the meeting.

The Sub Committee considered the application for the grant of a premises licence to permit licensable activities at the Sidmouth Folk Festival event in Blackmore Gardens and Peacock Lawn, Blackmore Drive, Sidmouth EX10 8LA.

The applicant, Sidmouth Folk Week Productions Ltd, entitled to make representations, was represented by John Radford of JR Event Services Ltd.

Also present, and entitled to make representations, was the interested party, Stephen Pemberton.

Paper copies of a previously circulated submission from Mr Pemberton were tabled at the meeting.

The Licensing Officer introduced the application which covered the period Friday 2August to Friday 9 August 2024 as set out on page 7 of the report.  Four representations had been received from local residents, all relating to public nuisance. 

The Licensing Officer drew the Sub Committee’s attention to the following points:

·        Two sound recordings, taken on a mobile phone at a residential property in Coburg Terrace, had been submitted in support of one of the representations.  The recordings had been seen by the applicant.

The sound recordings were played.

·        The recordings were of a different event, the Sidmouth Jazz and Blues Festival, with a different applicant.

·        Representations referred to licensed hours in previous years and the licence for 2023 was included on page 61 of the report for comparison.

·        The applicant had engaged with Environmental Health (EH) prior to submitting the application in line with best practice. 

·        Noise mitigation measures to address EH concerns were set out in Appendix H on page 64 of the report.

·        A mediation meeting had been attended by Mr Radford and Mr Pemberton.  Mr Radford had offered to consider adjusting the timings applied for in line with the previous year.  This had not been acceptable to Mr Pemberton and no agreement had been reached at the mediation.

In response to a question from Members, the Licensing Officer advised that Blackmore Gardens and Peacock Lawn had been used in the same way at last year’s event, although not in every previous year.

The applicant’s agent and the interested party had no questions for the Licensing Officer.

The applicant’s agent, Mr Radford, made the case for the application and highlighted the following points:

·        The Sidmouth Folk Festival would be celebrating its 70^th anniversary in 2024 and, since 2005 Blackmore Gardens had been used as a focus for folk music and dance; a creative hub at no cost.

·        Dance ceilidhs had been introduced to help provide an income for the festival.

·        The PA system had been in use at the venue over the past 10 years and the applicant had sought advice from Environmental Health to ensure that an appropriate noise management plan was in place.

·        The applicant sought to ensure that sufficient methods of engagement were in place should any problems arise during the festival.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 46.

The Sub Committee considered an application for the grant of a premises licence to permit licensable activities at the Sidmouth Folk Festival event at the location known as Betsy’s Knapp, Corner of Bickwell Lane and Station Road/Bulverton Road, Sidmouth.

The applicant, Sidmouth Folk Week Productions Ltd, entitled to make representations, was represented by John Radford of JR Event Services Ltd.

The interested party who had submitted representations was not present.

The Licensing Officer presented the report and noted that the application was for a time limited licence covering the period 2 to 9 August 2024, with different finish times for the sale of alcohol, late night refreshment and entertainment into the early hours of 10 August.

It was noted that the hours applied for are the same as the previous year.  One representation had been received and no mediation had taken place.

There were no questions from Members or the applicant’s agent for the Licensing Officer.

The applicant’s agent made the case for the application and noted that this out of town venue had been part of the Folk Festival for many years since 1997.  The venue provided a late night social space serving the campsite.  The PA system would face up the valley and significant ground work had been undertaken to mitigate any sound issues.  The applicant had engaged with Environmental Health and a noise management plan was in place.

In response to a question from Members, the applicant’s agent advised that he had last been involved in the event’s production prior to 2020 and in 2019 there had been complaints from two residents which had been managed by the Festival organisers.  Sound levels could be managed through the sound desk and were also sometimes affected by weather conditions.

The Environmental Health Officer advised that one complaint had been received in previous years regarding noise levels and that a management plan for 11pm to 7am had been introduced to ensure that there would be no sleep disturbance at sensitive properties nearby.  Information regarding any complaints was fed back to the management team at the time and plans are living documents which can be adapted to deal with any issues.

The applicant’s agent did not wish to make a closing statement.

The Chair thanked everyone for attending and advised that the Sub Committee would notify its decision in writing in five working days.