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Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Woodgreen, Witney

Contact: Democratic Services 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence and Temporary Appointments

Minutes:

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Postan and Councillor Cahill substituted for him.

2.

Declarations of Interest

To receive any declarations from Members of the Committee on any items to be considered at the meeting

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest received.

3.

Application for a New Premises Licence for Witney Music Festival Ltd pdf icon PDF 53 KB

Purpose

To determine an application for a new Premises Licence in relation to a one day event run by Witney Music Festival Ltd to take place on Church Green, Witney.

 

Recommendation

·         to grant the application as requested;

·         to grant the application subject to such conditions that are necessary to promote the Licensing Objectives; or

·         refuse the application in whole or in part where it is necessary to promote the Licensing Objectives.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel received a report from the Group Manager of Residents’ Services asking them to consider an application for a new premise licence in relation to a one day event run by Witney Music Festival Ltd. 

 

The application had been submitted by Mr Eric Marshall on 12 July 2021.  The event would take place on Church Green, Witney and would provide entertainment and the sale of alcohol (on the premises) from midday to 2200hrs (alcohol sales to cease at 2145hrs) on the 25 September 2021 for up to 5000 people.

 

No objection had been received from Thames Valley Police, however, representations had been received from the Council’s Technical Pollution Services Team and a copy of this was attached as Annex B to the report.  In response, the applicant submitted a Noise management plan which was attached at Annex C.

 

During the consultation period, Oxfordshire Fire Authority had requested further information from the applicant and were awaiting a response.  A copy of their request was attached at Annex D to the report.

 

Objections had been received from eleven local residents and the local Ward Member, Councillor David Harvey and were detailed in Annex E to the report.  The report summarised the main objections at section 4.6 of the report along with an explanation of which concerns could not be taken into consideration under the Licensing Act.

 

The Licensing Officer, Andrea Thomas, outlined the report and explained that an original date for the event of 21 August 2021 had been amended to 25 September 2021 due to the timescales involved.  She explained that a larger scale version of this event was normally held on The Lees, in Witney.  Ms Thomas highlighted the eleven objections received plus those from the Environmental Health officer, Witney Town Council and the Fire Authority.

 

In response to a question from the Chairman, the representative from the Fire Authority, Mr Lee advised that no response had been received from the applicant following the request for further information.

 

The applicant, Mr Marshall, addressed the meeting and thanked officers for allowing him time to respond to the objections.  He felt that there was a general misunderstanding about what the event was hoping to achieve, which was a community event, to say thank you to the residents of Witney and to encourage footfall within the town.  He described the event as a large scale busking event where music would be played for people to enjoy.  There would not be a fairground, no stalls and he confirmed they would be content to remove the request to sell alcohol to encourage visitors to use the pubs in the town.  He reiterated that the organisers had a good track record of putting on this event and it was well managed.

 

The Chairman, Councillor MacRae queried the application to have a bar on site and Mr Marshall confirmed this provision could be removed from the application.  In response to further questions from the Chairman, Mr Marshall advised that they would expect a lower rate of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.