Wychwood Festival given the go-ahead
The Cheltenham music festival received noise complaints last year
Cheltenham’s music festival Wychwood won’t lose its licence and can go ahead in May – but the stage will be moved away from people’s homes and there will be more noise monitoring.
Cheltenham Borough Council reviewed the premises licence for the festival on Tuesday (March 25) after complaints were lodged over “distressing” noise and nuisance affecting nearby residents.
The family-friendly event takes place at Cheltenham Racecourse from May 30 to June 1 this year.
The event is popular with parents and children and includes workshops, comedy, a literature festival and live performances.
The 10,000 person capacity festival has permission to play live and recorded music indoors and outdoors as well as films, dance and other performances.
They can also provide late night food and drink as well as supply alcohol for consumption at the site.
But half a dozen people from nearby Park Lane, Spring Lane and Shaw Green Lane objected to the licence this year.
Organisers have taken on board the complaints and agreed to introduce more monitoring on the site and make changes to ensure the event does not cause as much of a nuisance as it did in 2024.
Daniel Padfield, who lives in Park Lane, raised concerns that noise was between 55 decibels up to 60 decibels over the weekend.
He spoke at the licensing sub-committee meeting on March 25 and said the festival had not been a problem in previous years. However, it caused a nuisance for residents in 2024.
Dr Padfield told the public meeting he objected because his partner is very seriously ill.
“I’m just trying to prevent them from getting worse,” he said.
“It turns out that I’m not the only one who was affected by this number of objections. It’s also important to say I don’t want the license revoked.”
He told councillors he wanted the conditions to be changed to explicitly state the positioning of the stages to be further away from housing.
“I don’t think that’s completely unreasonable,” he said.
“That’s a pretty good compromise here and the direction of those stages to move to face away from the main residential areas.”
He said comments from residents closer to the site demonstrated how loud and disruptive the festival was in 2024.
“For me personally it was the low frequency noise that was the worst,” he said.
“So I was in Park Lane, we could feel the music in the kitchen, which is at the back of the house and we’re on the side away from the fields.”
He said there were four times as many complaints than in 2023.
“This will likely get worse as the festival is planning on having even larger crowds going forwards,” he said.
“So around 8000 people estimated this year and on the licence is 9,999 people that can be let in a day.
“So this festival has gone from being small over the next 20 years to getting quite successful.
“Which means that they’ve got bigger and bigger and larger and larger, presumably the amount of music and loudness.”
Gareth Jones, the council’s senior environmental head, said there was no breach of the licence last year.
And said the event has a history of being well run and well monitored.
However, he said the licence review was an opportunity to modernise and update the licence conditions and make them clear for everybody.
He told the meeting environmental officers from Cheltenham will be there monitoring the event this year.
And colleagues from Tewkesbury Borough Council will also be invited to monitor the event on their side of the border.
Southam Parish Council joint chairman Steve Lennon spoke at the meeting and relayed the concerns of residents in Southam Lane.
He called for the stage to be moved as the event has caused a significant noise nuisance over the last two years.
“Due to the change in the stage location over the last two years, it’s become much more significant in 2023, 2024,” he said.
“We don’t object to the holding of the festival and I’m sure there are residents locally that very much enjoy it, but we would request that proper consideration is given to relocating the stage to the west end away from the houses.
“Going back to see several years before that, it wasn’t the problem.”
Councillor Jan Foster (G, Prestbury) said she would hate to see Wychwood Festival go anywhere else.
“It’s a great event and it brings lots of joy and boosts the local economy,” she said.
“I’m from Prestbury, and Prestbury residents are on the whole a very tolerant lot, and they’re generally willing to put up with a bit of inconvenience for other people’s enjoyment.
“But in exchange for that toleration, they do deserve consideration.
“I was driven indoors because it was uncomfortably loud in my garden, and I live over a mile away as the crow flies from the nearest point of the racecourse perimeter, not from the stage, from the nearest edge of the perimeter, so I have a great deal of sympathy for those living closer.
“I believe them and they tell me that their ornaments inside their houses actually vibrated on the shelves. I could feel the vibrations of in my chest in my garden.
“Now everybody says that the regulations were not breached. I accept that that may be so, but I don’t think that’s the point.
“If the speed limit is 60mph, you don’t have to drive at 60, you can drive at 55. So just because the regulations say the sound mustn’t be higher than X decibels.
“Surely it doesn’t mean that the authority has to set it at decibels as the limit. Otherwise, what’s the point of having regional licensing authorities could just go by the regulations.
“So I think it is wrong for any event organizer to be allowed to hide behind a regulatory limit, and that causes distress to local people who have no choice but to be there”
John Jacka, another resident, raised concerns over low frequency noise. He also called for independent monitoring of the noise levels. He said there was a latency of about 15 to 20 minutes in reporting the noise.
“I can provide witness to that because the independent monitor was actually using my field to conduct noise,” he said.
“There was a latency, they were walking between the sites. And my property, which whilst it’s only 300m from the site as a crow flies, it would take you 15 to 20 minutes to walk from there back to the site.
“And that’s what they were doing, walking the data back, not telephoning it in.”
He suggested a reduction in the target music noise level and some form of noise wall between the stage and the affected properties.
The licensee’s solicitor agreed they needed to make improvements this year. But they said the licence had not been breached. He said they were not in breach of the conditions.
“We have been doing this for 20 years. Despite what has been suggested this evening we are very well trusted.”
He said Wychwood has a history of being well run and welcomed by the community. They have always done the right thing and sought to deliver high standards, he added. But he said there is clear room for improvement. And they have agreed to move the stage further away from residents.
“And moving forward that trust point is important,” he said “First is we recognise the position of the stage itself needs to move and will move further away from residents,” he said.
“Not as far as the applicant will like. But it is proposed to move.” He also said the angle of the stage and the way it was situated in 2024 merits improvement.
“We had a pinchpoint at the rear of the audience,” he said. This was “over corrected” in 2024.
“What that meant is that noise came back at residents too directly. We propose to amend that.”
He also said they would reduce the amount of time the two main stages are on at the same time. This will be reduced from seven hours over three days to just 90 minutes this year.
And a third mobile monitor will be employed to specifically focus on the noise in the residential areas and immediate vicinity. The licensee also proposed a new condition to reduce the maximum C weighted low frequency noise level 85 dB LAeq over 15 minutes with a maximum of 90 dB over 15 minutes.
The committee took on board the concerns of objectors and were keen to make sure the festival works for all in the town. They felt the applicant had put forward a lot of measures to try and make it less of a nuisance for nearby residents.
Councillor Simon Wheeler (LD, Hesters Way) said: “Nobody in this room wants to be seen as the Grinch who stole Christmas. Or the Grinch who stole Wychwood Festival.”
Dr Padfield said he hoped the changes would make a big difference. Environmental officers said they noted the concerns of residents and have plans to do “a lot more monitoring” than what was done in recent years.
They are reassured by the plans to use delay speakers and low frequency noise restrictions.
And the applicant’s solicitor said there will always be some impact from large scale events.
“That is the truth of time,” he said. We will not be able to deliver perfection for everyone.”
But he said the organisers will do their best. The committee unanimously agreed it was necessary to modify the conditions of the licence.
Chairman David Willingham (LD, St Peters) said: “The event has been running for 19 years without incident.
“The applicant and other residents want to be able to enjoy their homes without disturbance. The solicitor did acknowledge there was room improvement following the event in 2024.”
A condition which requires the licence holder to use acoustic consultants to monitor the noise both during sound checks as well as the event itself was agreed as well as the maximum levels of low frequency noise.