Settle Festival organisers fight on

8:53am Friday 29th February 2008

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Settle Festival organisers are planning to appeal against a decision to refuse a three-day music and arts event in August.

Mark Dale, who is behind the idea to stage a festival on land between Rathmell and Giggleswick, told the Herald he still felt it should go ahead and was seeking legal advice.

“We have been overwhelmed by the response to the rejection of the licence, particularly from the local community. It was almost impossible to walk around Settle on Saturday without people coming up and saying how disappointed they were.”

Mark Dale

He has the backing of Settle mayor Coun David Heather, who is supporting a fundraising campaign which Mr Dale believes will address many of Craven District Council licensing panel's concerns.

Last week, the panel voted against the application, citing a lack of clarity on the four licensing objectives: prevention of crime and disorder, prevention of public nuisance, public safety and protection of children from harm.

The panel - Couns Robert Heseltine, David Ireton and Andy Quinn - held a two-day hearing at which there were objections from concerned residents, who cited undue noise and crime and safety concerns for festival-goers and local people.

The panel judged sufficient issues and objections had been raised on all four licensing objectives to turn the application down. It felt it was not workable to address a substantial number of concerns by imposing conditions.

Bur Mr Dale still believes the festival should go ahead and says many of the panel's concerns had already been addressed.

Responding to comments in the decision notification, Mr Dale said: "We have always said that the festival plan was organic' and would be developed over time, as is common with many events of this nature.

"Between December, when the application was submitted, and the hearing in February, considerable further work had been done, specifically addressing areas where particular questions had been raised by bodies like the police, such as the site, traffic, noise and security.

"Unfortunately this extra work was not taken into account by the licensing committee as they viewed the plan as it stood when the application was made.

"We have been overwhelmed by the response to the rejection of the licence, particularly from the local community. It was almost impossible to walk around Settle on Saturday without people coming up and saying how disappointed they were."

Mr Dale has hit back at critics who claimed the organisers were only seeking to make personal profit from the event, pointing out they had publicly committed the proceeds to community projects.

They have estimated the event would generate more than £2.5 million from outside the area into the local economy and the business plan allocated £100,000 towards promoting the festival and local area on top of the £1 million event budget.

Mr Dale won a personal development bursary from Yorkshire Forward, with which he employed staff at his workplace, Malham Tarn Field Centre, to enable him to supplement his volunteer time on Settle Festival.

He said: "To enable us to progress, we need to produce professionally-written plans by specialists in such events to show precisely how we are going to address the site-specific issues of traffic management, noise and safety.

"This has always been our intention, as stated in the operating plan, but these costs were to be funded through advance ticket sales once the licence was in place.

"We are now, therefore, setting up a development fund to enable us to pay for these reports to be carried out now, to add these to the licence application/appeal.

"We are appealing for supporters to pay £100 each to become "gold sponsors". These supporters will then be entitled to two VIP tickets to Settle Festival, making them a discount on the full ticket price.

"If the appeal is unsuccessful, or doesn't go ahead, the VIP tickets will be valid for next year, or an exclusive gold sponsor event will be held locally to say thank you. Coun David Heather, mayor of Settle, has pledged to purchase gold sponsorship number one."

The tickets go on sale today (Friday).

North Yorkshire Police have also responded to the decision to refuse the licence.

Western Area Commander Chief Supt Colin Taylor told the Herald: "North Yorkshire Police have worked with Mr Dale as event organiser throughout the preparation of his application.

"Our main responsibility as a statutory authority is to ensure public safety and we sought assurance that the planning for the event complied with national codes of conduct for event safety.

"In principle, we were not against the Settle Festival, but had a responsibility to ensure that, should it go ahead, it would be run to a high standard and would be safe for those attending and for residents of local communities.

"The licensing and appeals sub-committee felt that Mr Dale's plans did not fully address the issues raised regarding event safety. We will continue to provide advice for Mr Dale should he request it in the planning of any future event."

Mr Dale said: "The festival has always been a community-focused event. It is being run by the community and will put back into the community and I and the rest of the organising team believe that an appeal will demonstrate that many of the concerns raised have been and will be addressed and met.

"We will take everything on board with future plans, which we are working hard to develop, and will continue to work with the police and other agencies to deliver a safe and enjoyable event for the people of Craven and beyond."