Drinks licence granted for land by church with conditions to limit noise

A drinks licence has been granted for land to the north of St Peter’s Church, Brighton, although with shorter hours than before.

Neighbours, in St Peter’s Place, told a Brighton and Hove City Council licensing panel that they endured sleepless nights and people urinated in their front gardens when events went on into the early hours in 2023.

The Caravanserai venue is due to return to the grassed area north of St Peter’s Church during this year’s festival season although a different organisation is to operate the site.

Four residents objected to the application which was submitted by the council and which has been granted with conditions by a panel of three councillors – Julie Cattell, Sam Parrott and Kerry Pickett.

The licensed hours, from 10am to 10pm from Sunday to Wednesday and from 10am to 10.30pm from Thursday to Saturday, mean earlier finishes than in the past.

The venue can serve drinks later during the fringe and festival season, from the last weekend in April to the first weekend in June.

On non-bank holiday weeks, the licensed hours are from 11am to 11pm from Sundays to Wednesdays and from 11am to midnight from Thursdays to Saturdays.

On bank holiday weekends, the hours on a Sunday are also from 11am to midnight.

At the hearing on Friday 6 February, resident Maja Myall said that her daughter’s English GCSE grade dropped from a predicted nine to five, resulting in her missing out on a place at her preferred university.

Mrs Myall said: “This proves a direct causal link between the venue’s operation and measurable harm to a child’s development.

“This May, she will be at home completing first-year university law exams so she will be doing exams again when this event is proposed.”

Mrs Myall said that people had urinated in their garden and a man was caught with his trousers down ready to defecate.

Another neighbour, Tom Lines, said that there was no barrier stopping the sound rising to his bedroom or the homes of thousands of other residents lining the valley.

Mr Lines said: “The pounding bass and drum notes, in particular, rise insistently to bedrooms and higher. It is like forced attendance at a stadium rock concert but for hours on end, day after day, week after week.”

The panel noted that the previous licence, covering an area from just north of St Peter’s Church to the southern end of Old Steine, ran until 2am but would now be replaced.

The conditions on the new licence, proposed by the council’s environmental health team, required sound from the site to be inaudible after 11pm and for improved noise management.

The panel was told that the new operator had already submitted a detailed noise management plan.

The council’s decision letter said: “The panel do take very seriously the concerns of those who made representations and clearly there have been issues with the Fringe event in previous years and residents have had cause to complain.

“However, the panel can see that the applicant has worked hard to improve the proposed licence and make it better tailored to the specific area, as opposed to the wider existing licence.

“The conditions proposed are robust and thought through and, with the addition of those from the environmental protection team, should mitigate the risk of public nuisance.

“In addition, there are the documents from the new operator relating to noise management, which are detailed, and the panel expect to be followed.”

Alcohol off-sales would be restricted to drinks sold in sealed containers through a food-led market only.