Agenda item

An application has been made for a new premises licence for a festival to be known as Sounds Beautiful at Gaunts House in Wimborne. The application has been out to public consultation and has attracted relevant representations.  A Licensing Sub Committee must consider the application and representations at a public hearing.

The Licensing Team Leader presented the report for an application for a new premises licence for a festival to be known as Sounds Beautiful at Gaunts House in Wimborne.

The application was to cover one event a year with the first one starting on 27 June 2024.  The Licensing Team Leader clarified the timings of the alcohol sales that had been requested.

The application had been out to public consultation and attracted three relevant representations from Responsible Authorities stating that more information was required, the Responsible Authorities considered both the Event Management Plan (EMP) and the Noise Management Plan (NMP) inadequate.

The applicant advised the sub-committee that they had submitted an EMP on 31 October 2023 and had worked hard to get the information required.

The Service Manager for Licencing and Community Safety outlined the involvement of the Safety Advisory Group (SAG) and advised that he was satisfied that they had fulfilled their duty in giving advice to the applicants. He confirmed that the documents had been received and circulated resulting in the representations received from the Environmental Health Team, Police and Fire Services.

The applicants were invited to put their case forward.  The capacity for the event had been capped at 1500, although they were not expecting any more than 1000 people at the event due to the number of tickets that had been sold to date.  They outlined their preparations with regard to the attendance of paramedics, professional 24-hour security, Public Liability Insurance, safe routes for emergency services and noise monitoring.  The applicants were open to discussion of timings for the Saturday night and would be happy to finish live music at midnight.

The sub-committee members and the Responsible Authorities were given the opportunity to ask questions of the applicants.

The applicants had not employed a designated manager to help with the event, but they had taken a lot of advice in relation to the operational requirements.  They responded to questions around SIA security numbers and what areas they would be responsible for at the event.  The issue of unaccompanied under 16 year olds was clarified, it had been an error on the application form and should have read 18 year olds.

The Chair offered the opportunity of a half hour adjournment for the applicant and Responsible Authorities to sit and discuss a way forward with conditions to suit all parties.  It was determined by the Responsible Authorities that it would not have been enough time to achieve confidence that the licensing objectives would be met and therefore it was not deemed helpful to adjourn.

The Environmental Protection Team Leader put forward the case for Environmental Health.  He referred to a number of events in the same location when he had been out on site to monitor noise which had led to complaints.  He clarified some of the timelines of the application and the correspondence requested by the Environmental Protection Team.  In conclusion the details missing in the plan did not give the officers confidence that the application would not cause a noise public nuisance.

The sub-committee were given the opportunity to ask questions of the Environmental Protection Officers.

The Applicants were given the opportunity to ask questions of the Environmental Protection Officers

Dorset Police were given the opportunity to put their case forward.  Sgt Gosling explained how his Licensing team worked and their objective to make sure the licensing objectives were consistently promoted.  Whilst happy to support licensees the role of the police was not to coach, manage events and suggest conditions.  In summary, the application was not sufficiently complete for him say it would meet the licensing objectives particularly relating to the prevention of crime and disorder and public safety.

All parties were given the opportunity to sum up their cases before the sub-committee retired to make their decision.

In summing up the Responsible Authorities were of the belief that the applicants were well intentioned, but the paperwork was the only thing they had to base their assumptions on, timescales to get the application right had run out and what had been presented fell short of requirements.

The sub-committee retired to make their decision.

Decision: that a Premises Licence be REFUSED.