Neighbours have objected to an application for a drinks licence for a new event planned for Hove Park.
Taste of the Caribbean Food and Drink Festival is due to take place on Saturday 22 June and is expected to operate one weekend a year from next year.
The event will be fenced off from the rest of the park and include bars serving alcohol at various points across the enclosed site.
The event operator S&A Entertainment Ltd applied to Brighton and Hove City Council to sell alcohol from 10am to 8pm on site only.
The council broadly supports businesses applying for new alcohol licences in the Westdene and Hove Park ward, without the sort of extra restrictions that apply in the busy centre of Brighton.
But two neighbours have objected to the application which means that it will be decided by a panel of three councillors at a hearing next Tuesday (14 May).
One of the objectors, whose details were redacted by the council, said that they were concerned about security, noise, parking in neighbouring streets and whether residents would be consulted on potential future two-day events.
The other objector said: “The toilet and other hygiene facilities in this location are limited and inadequate for an event which may attract large numbers of people.
“The events proposed are based on live and recorded music which if played at high volume will disturb the peaceful enjoyment of local homes.”
Sussex Police and the council licensing department have agreed a draft set of conditions with the organiser.
These include having at least one personal licence holder on site for every two bars when the bars are open and a ban on selling drinks in glass containers.
Sussex Police would be expected to have free access to all parts of the licensed site when open.
Security staff would be expected to monitor the site overnight and keep an incident log of any complaints, crimes, people who are removed from the site and the seizure of drugs or offensive weapons.
In future, the organiser would be expected to inform the council about any proposed two-day events at least six months in advance.
The licensing panel hearing is due to take place virtually at 10am next Tuesday (14 May). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
Desecration, that’s what this is. Hove Park is a green oasis of calm and real beauty. It is wrong to turn it into a high decibel hellscape from which there is no escape within the park. How sad for the red list birds nesting there and In adjacent Hove Park Gardens.
Preston park is used regularly, why do you think’ this park is special? Either use public spaces or don’t, you can’t be a nimby.
A food and drink festival sounds like bread and butter for a city park.
Do you object to the word Caribbean?
Very True, Will the grass be restored after the mess it will make and who will pay? If they are making money from tickets they should pay for repairs.
Bizarre event and location for Hove Park.
They can’t do it in Preston Park. That was trashed already by last weekend’s food festival.
Preston park Is a huge mud pit today. Why ruin the lovely green spaces and turn it all into mud? The level is currently being churned up by the fair. Just rent a car park and have the festival on concrete instead.
Hmm…there’s something in there for having such a hard surface “festival area” purely for hosting events.
Stick it on the Madeira Drive cycle lane – no-one uses that
NIMBY
very true.
Not the right place.
Most of these public spaces are rented out for a tiny fraction of the net profits made by the promotors. Brighton has become an ATM for a few mates of BHCC officials…
Ha! An oasis of calm that overlooks a Lidl car park!!! What a laugh. It’s not as if the park hasn’t been used for concerts, productions and events before, never mind the annual Lions/Martlets carnivals. It’s a city park for goodness sake, not an untouched wilderness. As a local resident, my idea of a hellscape is somewhere inhabited solely by killjoys who rant about anything they don’t like, even if it doesn’t have a noticeable impact on them.
Thank-you. Good points
More fencing off of our public parks for wholly inappropriate events, best wishes to the residents, you know who not to vote for. I’m not guilty. If this event does take place I hope there will be proper protection of the natural surroundings, especially the growing small trees. Maybe there should be survey to ensure it’s not disturbing any wildlife.
On reading other comments, it is also a tragedy for Preston Park. Maybe when the council spend funded money to improve the sports grounds they will see the ridiculousness of these events, but then again maybe not. Look at Valley Gardens and the Level, wasted millions. Pavilion Gardens will go the same way unless there is a fence and gates.
,
Sounds like a lot of NIMBYism to me. Wahhh someone wants to do something that may slightly inconvenience me for 5 mins one day of the year wahhhhhhhh nature, wahhh wildlife, wahhhh water contamination… Get a grip
Well, maybe you don’t live near there, in which case it is easy for you to criticise those who will have to put up with the racket. What with Preston Park, Brunswick Square, Madeira Drive & St Anns Well Gardens all having noisy festivals, why should yet another park to be taken over by very loud noise?
Get some common sense
Well, maybe you don’t live near there, in which case it is easy for you to criticise those who will have to put up with the racket. What with Preston Park, Brunswick Square, Madeira Drive & St Anns Well Gardens all having noisy festivals, why should yet another park to be taken over by very loud noise?
So it will be fenced off. Presumably that means yet again a charge for entering the space, which belongs to the people of Brighton & Hove, who pay for its upkeep through council tax.
Have it Aug bank holiday ,call it the Hove Park Carnival..pass out some knives and then let ’em get on with it
“The other objector said: “The toilet and other hygiene facilities in this location are limited and inadequate for an event which may attract large numbers of people”
Have these people never heard of portable toilets?
The organisers certainly have!
Middle-class numpties……..its a public park, you know, for the use of the public. Its not your personal green space exclusively for your leisure, just because you live near it. Numbskulls.