The following reply was received from the Vale of White Horse District Council regarding the ‘Trifle’ event near Watchfield on the weekend of 30th Aug – 1st Sept.
Dear Sue,
Thank-you for your e-mail and I hope the below gives an understanding of the licensing process and what actions our Environmental Protection team (E.P.) took over the weekend.
The event in question was the ‘Trifle Festival’ held on land at Westmill Farm, Watchfield. The organisers had correctly submitted to the council licensing department what is called a ‘Temporary Event Notice’ under the Licensing Act informing us of their intention to hold an event that included what is called regulated entertainment (which would be the amplified music) and the sale of alcohol which they can do for events that will attract less than 500 people.
The Government through the Licensing Act defines what the council can do with these notices so it is not a question of council policy or ‘granting a licence’ for events run under these notices. Once the notice is submitted the organiser can effectively go ahead with the event. There is provision for the Police or the Environmental Protection team of the council to object, but they would need specific evidence to show that a particular event would cause a problem, bearing in mind that these type of events occur most weekends somewhere in our area over the summer without issue and that the organiser has the right to appeal. There is no requirement in law for organisers to publicise an event or contact the local community.
In this case because the event had not been held before or any other event held on that land had previously caused a problem, there would have been no grounds to object. The farm is situated well away from built up areas and if run properly should not have caused noise problems for any other residents.
However E.P. were concerned by 2am finish on the notice so they contacted the organisers advising them to take account of neighbours and to monitor the noise to ensure that it was not a problem. Clearly this was not done.
Once calls started to be received by our out of hours facility the duty officer attended to monitor the noise at the locations of those who requested it. He then liaised with the organisers and got the noise turned down. he left the site at 0045 on the Friday night/Saturday morning and 0145 on the Saturday night/Sunday morning. At those times the noise was at an appropriate level.
Now of course there is evidence for Environmental Protection to make a strong objection if anyone wishes to hold a similar event there again without appropriate controls and rest assured that they will! We are not aware of any future events planned for this site. I will be taking up the complaint with the organiser in any case this week.
I appreciate this might sound like a ‘chicken & egg’ situation, but the Licensing Act and the Government guidance underneath it is clear as to what district councils may do to control such events, with the emphasis being on ‘light touch’.
please give me a ring if you wish to discuss the matter further.
Richard Brown
Licensing Officer
South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils.
Abbey House, Abingdon, OX14 3JE
01235 547642 (Text phone users add 18001 before dialing)
I write to update you on my original reply regarding the noise issues arising from the ‘Trifle Festival’ near Watchfield on the last weekend of August.
The organisers have now visited the council offices to receive suitable advice. The site will not be used for an amplified music event again; the organisers will not be holding any future events in the vicinity of Watchfield, and any events they notify us of that they wish to hold anywhere else in the Vale of White Horse area will be closely scrutinised.
Richard Brown
Licensing Officer
South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils.
Abbey House, Abingdon, OX14 3JE
01235 547642 (Text phone users add 18001 before dialing)
On behalf of Trifle Events Ltd I would like to sincerly apologise for any disturbance or worry caused to yourselves and the inhabitants of Watchfield and surrounding areas, whilst our festival was taking place between August 30th and September 1st. I am sad that we failed to notify your community before hand. It is also regretful that our sound reduction plan was not entirely effective and did not take into account the change in wind direction and that we failed to monitor sound levels within the village during our event. We would like to offer our assurances that this event will not be taking place in your close vacinity again. The Trifle team would be pleased to offer the parish their sevices by means of reparation in a form that would be most useful to the village. We have many skills within our team and could offer our time painting, gardening, creative workshops, litter picking etc or we have many resources that we would be happy to lend for any of your village events. So please don’t hesitate to get in touch if there is anything we can do to help make amends.