Resolved:  That Cllr. Clack be appointed Chairman of the meeting.

(Councillor Clack in the Chair)

No additional declarations of interest were made.

(Cowden and Hever)

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and advised that the Applicant was delayed and therefore adjourned the Hearing until 11am.

Meeting adjourned 10.31am

Meeting reconvened 11.05am

The Chairman advised that the Applicant was still delayed but was happy for the Hearing to commence without him, due to the Neverworld Noise Consultant being present. He advised that until the Applicant was in attendance the focus would be on noise.

The Hearing heard from the Noise Consultant who advised that lessons had been learnt from the previous year and a good relationship had been built with Environmental Health to adjust levels and put controls in place to mitigate noise. He advised that discussions had taken place between the Environmental Health Officer and himself prior to the Hearing and they had agreed to a closing hour of 23:00 on the Thursday and to reduce the daytime LAeq measurements to 55dBA rather than the 65dBA. It was requested that after the hours of 23:00, LAeq were at 45dBA rather than last year’s 35dBA as it resulted in difficulties to operate at such a level. Last year weather conditions meant that the ambient noise levels and sound travelled more, making it difficult to remain within the agreed conditions. Background noise of aircraft also made it difficult to identify the source of any noise.  A shut down time of 02:00 on Friday and Saturday would be applied and any music after 02:00 would be incidental background music.

The Hearing was advised that there had been an incident at the event last year on the Saturday night when the music at the festival was shut down due to conditions on the licence not being met as the noise was above the agreed levels. This shut down was proactively carried out by event staff.

The Environmental Health Officer addressed the Hearing and informed that additional enhancements would be put in place, including communication and radio coverage to all monitoring points. Additional monitoring equipment would be placed at the north of the site. Concession stands would have their output power limited and control would remain with the Noise Consultant to stop the noise if it increased.

The Licensing Officer tabled additional comments received from a resident following the supplementary agenda that was published and summarised additional comments received. The Noise Consultant advised that the propagation modelling was a guide and so standard conditions were assumed. Additional monitoring and improved internet connections for reliability of communications would be in place and telephone numbers would be circulated when available.

A local resident objecting to the application raised concern that the changes to the event plans and previous promises were not being met and that the bass from the music was detrimental to the residents and the biodiversity of the site. Another local resident also expressed her concerns for the biodiversity of the site, the community and the impact on her health from the noise of the bass.

In response to Members’ questions the Noise consultant confirmed that the noise limitations  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.