Westival organiser will turn speakers away from villages to appease noise pollution concerns

THERE were “numerous complaints” about noise nuisance during a south county festival last year, according to an application for this year’s event.

Members of Pembrokeshire County Council’s licensing committee will consider an application for Westival at its meeting next week.

The three-day camping festival, for over 18s only, has been held at Shipping Hill Farm, Manorbier, run by the Worley family with a mix of live bands and DJs.

It includes a main stage with music 10am to 2am Friday and Saturday, and until 10pm on the Sunday (the bar will remain open until midnight), the Cave stage with music until 3am (10pm Sunday) and Garden area with small sound system (10am to 8pm all three days).

Last year’s festival was held under permission from two temporary event notices (TENs) and noise complaints were received from local residents including some in St Florence, a licensing team report states.

It adds: “The organiser submitted information to support their application and failed to provide noise monitoring provision and control as detailed in this submission.”

The application for consideration does not provide sufficient information on noise levels or controls, it states, adding that there are potentially more than 1,000 residential properties in the area.

The application says the direction of the sound systems will be changed for this year, so they will no longer both face St Florence, following discussion with local residents.

“One Soundsystem will be faced in the East Direction, and the other faced in the West direction, this meaning that neither system would
pointed in the direction of St Florence or Jameston,” it states.

The festival organiser will also try to use local accommodation for artists to mitigate concerns, with one larger guest house complaining that they needed to buy earplugs for guests last year and risked losing businesses.

Dyfed-Powys Police’s licensing officer, Nigel Lewis, has made 16 recommendations for the organiser to implement to meet licensing objectives.

His submission also refers to noise complaints and sates that the staggered cut off times for music and moving of the sound systems “may not amount to the mitigation of the noise nuisance.”

The committee will discuss the application at its meeting on Tuesday, April 30 at 10am.

Photograph: nick macneill / St. Florence Church, St. Florence, Pembrokeshire / CC BY-SA 2.0