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.

Councillor Martin Wale, Wes Read and William Wallace declared personal interests as either serving or past County Councillors as Somerset County Council leased Dillington House as a training venue. 

The Licensing Sub-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 Specialist - Licensing confirmed that representations from the police and environmental health (relating to noise) had been withdrawn as conditions had been agreed with the applicant.  One outstanding representation relating to noise from the event the previous year was not withdrawn and although the resident who submitted the representation was unable to attend the hearing in person, they had asked that their representation be read out.

The Specialist – Licensing informed members that an application had been received from Shindig Productions Ltd, for a time limited premises licence to be granted under the Licensing Act 2003 at Dillington Park, Ilminster TA19 9EQ.  The application was for a 3 year licence for an event to be held annually covering a maximum five day period between the 1st May and the 2^nd June each year from 2023 to 2025.  She outlined the list of events applied for, including plays, films, live and recorded music (indoor and outdoor), performance of dance, late night refreshment and the supply of alcohol.  The event would cease at 3.00am each day. She confirmed that the statutory notices had been displayed at the site and in a local newspaper and that both the police and environmental health officers had withdrawn their objection to the application subject to conditions attached to the licence.

The solicitor for the applicant addressed the Sub-Committee in support of the application and informed members that the licence application was for 3 years.  He noted their last application had been in 2020 but the event had not proceeded that year due to Covid restrictions.  The event had taken place in 2022 with only one objection received.  He drew attention to the ecological and sustainable ethos of the event, the engagement with consultees resulting in the withdrawal of objections from the police and environmental health officers, the noise management plan, their community engagement event and the access to tickets for local residents.  He also noted that they had reached out to the resident in Ilminster on two occasions to attempt to resolve their complaint with no response from them.

Councillor Ray Buckler said he had spoken to his local residents regarding the previous event in 2022 and he was pleased to support the application.  He felt the event had been well managed and was a cultural benefit to the local area. He noted the discounted tickets available to local residents, the charitable donation made by the event to the local church and the commercial opportunities for local businesses.

The Specialist – Licensing then read out the representation made by a local resident:

“Dillington is an unsuitable location for a music festival. Due to the close proximity of housing there has to be better venues on the Blackdown Hills away from such large towns as Ilminster.  Due to the lie of the land with Ilminster being up the sides of a valley. Sound travels from one side to the other and the sound seems to amplify as it hits the opposite side of the hill. This gets worse if the wind is blowing the noise in a southerly direction for noise coming from Dillington towards my house. Last year when the festival was held I am presuming that some sort of noise control measures were already in place. However I was still woken at 1.00am with the noise so loud the walls of my house were vibrating. This lasted until 3.00am.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.