Yesterday the Rhythm Tree festival was granted a license by the Isle of Wight council’s licensing committee, but objectors say it’s not going to end there.
Unusually for that committee, fifteen people attended to object, with four of them speaking against the granting of the license.
This year the festival has moved from Calbourne Mill to another site in Calbourne. Many of those living near there aren’t very happy about it.
Objectors concerns
VentnorBlog spoke to one of the objectors, Wendy Cook, last night. She explained that there were grave concerns about road safety, particularly as it was being held in the first weekend of school holidays.
The festival organisers plan to install three-phase lights at the junction of Pound Lane, where the event is being held, and the Yarmouth Road. She described the nearby junction as “Notorious”, highlighting a death of a horse on the road recently.
The remote nature of the area is an additional concern, she added, “If people wandered off site, there’s really nowhere for people to go, other than to people barns.”
“We intend to appeal to the Magistrate”
Wendy, a Barrister, told VB, “We intend to appeal to the Magistrate.” She continued, “In theory we have 21 days to appeal, but the event is to start two weeks on Friday, so we haven’t even got the allotted amount of appeal time.”
Their concern is that with a short time before the festival starts (on the 22nd), there might not be time to schedule a hearing at the Island’s Magistrate court, especially as a licensing-trained magistrates would be required.
The Isle of Wight council only grants Licenses a short period before events.
Wendy said she was concerned that granting the license with such a short period of time before the event doesn’t display much “transparency.”
“A very dangerous precedent”
“This isn’t just about this festival – I think it’s a very dangerous precedent, per se. You can have a festival with a few hundred people one year and then it steadily and incrementally grows and you’ve got an ongoing license for refreshments and so on, not specific to any particular festival, – who’s to say that the next one to come long, won’t be a very different thing altogether.”
We contacted the festival’s organisers last night, but haven’t heard back from them at the time of publication.
License application for Rhythm Tree Festival 2011
Image: dburka under CC BY-SA 2.0
