Agenda and minutes

Councillor Allen Thwaites was elected as Chair for this sub committee meeting.

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Simon Lumley.

Councillor Richard Sharp advised that he had attended the 2023 festival.

To consider a report that provides information for a shadow premises licence on land within the grounds and owned by Belvoir Castle, known as Knipton Pastures & Frog Hollow, Belvoir Castle grounds, Belvoir NG32 1PE for the Forbidden Forest Festival. The applicant currently holds a Premises Licence MMA0327 for this site which is for a four-day festival for up to 14,999 persons. The new application is for a five-day festival for up to 24,999 persons.  Members will be required to consider the information presented and determine the application by taking such steps it considers necessary for the promotion for the Licensing objectives.

The Chair explained the procedure for the hearing and it was agreed that each party be allocated 30 minutes for their representation. It was also confirmed that all parties had received the relevant documentation.

The Council’s Barrister, Duncan Craig, advised that an email had been received from Mr Pape last Friday regarding certain details and questioning whether these had been dealt in a proper manner and he had advised the Council on process in accordance with the 2018 Data Protection Act, in particular with Schedule 2 and with GDPR, and in accordance with the Licensing Act and Hearing regulations and therefore the Council had dealt with the information in a proper and lawful manner.

The Licensing and Compliance Officer, Sarah Flower, presented a report that provided information for a shadow premises licence on land within the grounds and owned by Belvoir Castle, known as Knipton Pastures & Frog Hollow, Belvoir Castle grounds, Belvoir NG32 1PE for the Forbidden Forest Festival. The applicant currently held a Premises Licence MMA0327 for this site which was for a four-day festival for up to 14,999 persons. The new application was for a five-day festival for up to 24,999 persons.  She advised that an updated report was circulated after the initial agenda despatch which referenced the appropriate links to the appendices.

Members were required to consider the information presented and determine the application by taking such steps it considered necessary for the promotion of the Licensing objectives.

Philip Kolvin KC, Barrister for the applicant, presented the application.

Members asked the following questions to which Mr Kolvin and the Applicant’s Team members responded:

The Sub Committee asked what had been learnt from previous events and was now being done differently?

In response it was stated that the main point was that previously there was not a lot of police visibility and problems were exported off site. So they wanted to give a greater feeling of community safety and therefore there would be a far greater police visibility this year. They had also spoken with the parishes and wanted to listen to them better so there was now a group set up with a proper reporting mechanism that allowed information to come through and be dealt with onsite. Traffic was also a concern and they had considered parking, zones, access etc through this group. There would be temporary traffic restriction orders in place and traffic police on duty with more monitoring and resources to protect the public and the villages. They were doing everything they could to alleviate concerns.

The Sub Committee asked how were the event organisers dealing with noise complaints as it was a different type of noise with a base note that lifts and travels. Was there a detection for base noise?

Mr Kolvin explained that there would be no extra noise due to the increase in numbers. They would measure the base noise at the agreed locations and the Council will get a full log of the noise levels. The limits were set out  ...  view the full minutes text for item LSC8