Cookley residents driven mad by noise (From Kidderminster Shuttle)
Get involved! Send your photos, video, news & views by texting KS NEWS to 80360 or e-mail us
Cookley residents driven mad by noise
8:45am Thursday 4th October 2012 in Local
A BARRAGE of complaints has been made by Cookley residents about the level of noise coming from a festival site in Wolverley over the weekend.
People living in Cookley and Wolverley claim to have been kept awake during the night by “a barrage of high-volume band music”
coming from the MAD (Music Art Dance) Festival held in the Court Farm field.
The festival was given a temporary event notice, suitable for smallscale, one-off events which enabled organisers to provide entertainment until 11.30pm.
License holder Lesley Mountford said: “Bands were finished by 11pm on Friday and 11.30pm on Saturday.
A licensing officer came to check and he was happy with everything on both nights.”
A spokeswoman for Wolverley and Cookley Parish Council said: “The residents of Wolverley and the surrounding area were subjected to a barrage of high volume band music throughout Friday night and Saturday night, resulting in numerous complaints.
“Despite this, no action was taken to ensure the organisers adhered to the terms of the licence.”
The Court Farm field is used for events throughout the year and the parish council says it will be meeting with police and licensing authorities to discuss the future use of the venue.
“There was no noise over the allowed decibels,” added Mrs Mountford. “We would like to apologise for any inconvenience that may have been caused and thank everyone who came for a great festival.”
Labour councillor for Cookley Christopher Nicholls claimed he received 20 to 30 complaints on Sunday from people who were kept awake by the noise.
West Mercia Police also confirmed that it received about 30 complaints from residents concerned about noise disturbance and that Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) had been made aware of the complaints.
A meeting was due to be held yesterday by West Mercia Police District Inspector Paul Crowley with council partners to discuss the issues arising including licensing.
Niall McMenamin, a spokesman for WRS, said: “It is an offence to operate outside the licensable activities detailed in the temporary event notice. We take all licensing breaches seriously and will be taking formal action if the event organisers are found to have breached the conditions of their notice.
Comments(5)
lou1975
says...
12:18pm Fri 5 Oct 12
Of the Ilk
says...
6:11pm Fri 5 Oct 12
"The festival was given a temporary event notice, suitable for smallscale, one-off events which enabled organisers to provide entertainment until 11.30pm. " - this was not a small scale event with entertainment until 1130.
I hope the authorities fine the organisers so heavily that it wipes out all the profit and that for the sake of the residents, no event of this nature is allowed again.
We will visit the area agsin, but make sure there is no MAD festival going on at the time!
Wolverleyresident1
says...
9:51pm Fri 5 Oct 12
I go to work full time and the least I expect is to be able to get to sleep at a decent time! fair enough half 11/12 im not a miserable cow but this was a joke!!
Id like to know why residents in the local area weren't notified at least out of courtesy instead of just putting up tacky signs the day before!!
If I wanted to live near something like that I would of chosen Glastonbury!!
If I have anything to do with it It wont be happening again!!!!
WyreMillLane
says...
10:17am Thu 18 Oct 12
There was no consultation with local tax payers or the Parish Council.
The land owner, Mr Louis Strong is equally responsible for courting one activity after another. Next he has a 2 day motocross activity planned.....
Inform the licensing authorities or Parish Council if you are unhappy.
Jan@Cookley says...
7:44pm Thu 4 Oct 12