Agenda and minutes

In accordance with the Council's current Code of Conduct (adopted July 2012), which includes all the provisions relating to Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI), personal and prejudicial interests , Members are asked to declare any DPI and also any personal interests (and whether or not such personal interests are also "prejudicial") in relation to any matter on the Agenda for this meeting. A DPI is defined in The Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012 No. 1464) and Appendix 3 of the Council’s Code of Conduct.  A personal interest is defined in paragraph 2.8 of the Code and a prejudicial interest is defined in paragraph 2.9. In the interests of complete transparency, Members of the County Council, who are not also members of this committee, are encouraged to declare any interests they may have in any matters being discussed even though they may not be under any obligation to do so under any relevant code of conduct.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Committee noted the procedure to be followed when considering Licensing Applications under the Licensing Act 2003.  The Chairman introduced the members of the Sub-Committee and the Officers present at the hearing.

The Chairman confirmed that the Officer’s report relating to the case, the procedure to be adopted during the hearing and the documents which the authority is required to provide under the Regulations had been received by all Parties in advance of the meeting.

The Licensing Specialist informed members that an application had been received from Shindig Productions Ltd. to hold a music festival at Gilcombe Farm, Bruton from 23^rd to 27^th May 2019.  She noted the licensable activities and timings listed in the report and confirmed that the required notices had been displayed and advertised in a local newspaper.  She explained that the representation received from SSDC relating to Environmental Protection had been withdrawn and the applicant had agreed to amend their operating schedule to include 21 conditions in relation to noise.   The expected attendance for the event was 9,999 persons at any one time, including members of staff.  She concluded by outlining the options available to the Sub-Committee and the right of appeal open to the applicants.  

The Sub-Committee was addressed by the Environmental Health Specialist.  He explained that he had submitted a representation due to inadequate documentation being received with the application including the Security Operation Plan, Transport Management Plan, Fire and Safety Risk Assessments, Major incident scenario Plan, Production risk assessments, CDM controls and procedures and Crowd movement procedures.  He advised that on the Friday prior to the hearing 13 conditions had been agreed with the applicant and the requested documentation had been received but he had not had sufficient time to read through the documentation in order to withdraw his representation.

The Area Licensing Practitioner from Avon and Somerset Police advised that 15 conditions had been agreed with the applicant immediately prior to the start of the hearing although final wording on some of the conditions was still to be finalised.  The proposed conditions were read out by the Area Licensing Practitioner who explained that many of the conditions referred to a 12 week notice period for various policies, plans and information to be supplied which was being imposed due to lack of information at previous events and would give the Police sufficient time to go through and respond to the various documents prior to the event taking place.

The Applicant’s Solicitor confirmed that they were happy to comply with the conditions outlined by Avon & Somerset Police.

The Sub-Committee was then addressed by the Business Safety Officer of Devon and Somerset Fire & Rescue Service.  He explained that following a visit to the site the previous year he had witnessed many failures to provide basic fire provisions as required under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 Article 8 Duty to take General Fire Precautions.  In terms of going forward, he confirmed that conditions from the Fire and Rescue Service had been captured in the Police conditions and was therefore happy for the event to proceed providing the conditions were met. 

The Sub-Committee was addressed by the Applicants and their Solicitor in support of the application.  The Applicant’s Solicitor explained that the licence, if granted, would be an extremely robust premises licence with enforceable conditions and was far in excess of any festival licence granted previously.  The Applicant advised that they had taken on board the issues experienced  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.