Festival organisers try for third time lucky

9:26am Friday 28th March 2008

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It could be third time lucky for Settle Festival organisers who had their licence to hold a music festival near Rathmell turned down last month.

The group has agreed not to appeal against the refusal and instead will apply again for 2009.

“Our view now is that we know where Craven and other statutory bodies want the bar to be and so we will go forward to 2009 with the objective of delivering the level of detail Craven requires.”

Mark Dale

However, group members are planning to hold a series of small community events this year.

Proposals for a music festival on land between Rathmell and Giggleswick were first mooted for 2007.

But the strength of opposition from local residents forced the organisers to withdraw their 2007 application and go back to the drawing board.

They came back to the council with a plan this year and attended a two-day licensing hearing at the district council offices in February.

The licensing committee turned down the application on the grounds of safety and noise nuisance.

Mark Dale, events manager, said the team had initially looked at appealing against the decision and had taken legal advice.

"The legal advice we took indicated that the appeal process would only look at the information as it stood in December (when the application was submitted) and would not take into account the considerable extra work that has continued to be done since that point," he said.

"Our view now is that we know where Craven and other statutory bodies want the bar to be and so we will go forward to 2009 with the objective of delivering the level of detail Craven requires."

He added that festival organisers had been encouraged by the level and amount of support from across the country.

But he also said he was aware of concerns from other organisations across North Yorkshire regarding the potential impact the licensing decision could have on community events that required licensing in the future.

"The implication is that any event involving more than 500 people will require detailed traffic, security and safety planning and this could impact on all sorts of events," he said.

Despite the disappointment Mr Dale says he and his fellow organisers felt when the application was turned down, the group is standing by its commitment to put on local events.

"We have been talking with a number of local bodies and people who have been keen to see the momentum, set under way by the festival, is not lost," he said.

"We have always said our objective is to promote Settle and the surrounding area as a place to visit and we will be working with those who share the same positive thinking in order to create and run events that will generate interest and participation locally, as well as attract visitors into the area."

Ideas are already being gathered and include a series of comedy events, a musical flag festival, themed shop window displays with the involvement of local schools, and a further development on the Christmas lights switch-on event which the festival committee stepped in to provide last year.

An "events in Settle" meeting has been organised for Tuesday at 7pm in Settle Town Hall.

Anyone or any organisation with positive ideas, or who is interested in becoming actively involved in the series of events planned for the district, is invited to attend.

The police have said they will continue to assist the festival organisers to ensure any future event is carried out with the safety of all attendees in mind.

Sergeant Kevin Wilson told the Herald: "North Yorkshire Police are aware that Mark Dale and the organisers committee of the Settle Festival put in a great deal of work before submitting their application for a 2008 Settle Festival licence.

"As a responsible authority, it is our duty to scrutinise each application as it is submitted with a view to ensuring that all events are safe for those attending them.

"To this end, we look forward to continuing to work with the Settle Festival committee and Mark Dale and assist them to develop their plans for an application to be submitted regarding a 2009 event."

The Herald contacted the district council and the leader of the action group against the festival in Rathmell, but they declined to comment.