New year party to go ahead despite noise concerns

A pop-up party at Sandy Acres coastal car park in Cornwall on New Year's Eve has been granted permission by Cornwall Council

A pop-up New Year's Eve party has been granted permission to go ahead at a coastal car park in Cornwall despite concerns from residents.

Pop-up dance club Skybar applied for a temporary events notice (TENS) to host the event at Sandy Acres coastal car park in Hayle, a Cornwall Council lisensing meeting heard on Monday.

The environmental health department opposed the licence for the event which would run from 16:00 GMT on 31 December to 02:00 GMT on 1 January for about 400 people.

An officer said complaints had been received about noise following two other Skybar events in the car park in May and September.

Sound checks

Skybar director James Watson said he lodged the notice application with noise and management plans in place.

“I’d like to say we’ve got quite a good reputation within Cornwall for liaising with licensing, environmental health and other authorities when needed,” said Mr Watson.

The meeting heard the car park was nestled between two dunes in St Ives Bay, about an eight-minute drive from the main road, and was opposite Carbis Bay.

Mr Watson said after receiving complaints following the May event, the Skybar team did "everything they could to mitigate the concerns", including carrying out sound checks on the St Ives and Carbis Bay side of the bay.

'Biggest dates'

Michelle Cowie, from the environmental health department, said it received five complaints about the music in May and one complaint for the September event.

She said: "Having a complaint for the September event and complaints for the previous event, which were five hours, I’m concerned about how many complaints we’re going to have for a 10-hour event.

"Even if one person is affected, it’s a lot different being affected for 10 hours than it is for five hours."

Mr Watson argued: “We are talking about New Year’s Eve here. It's not a Sunday in the middle of the summer.

"It’s probably one of the biggest dates in the year for temporary events notices.

“We’re trying to provide something for the Hayle area.”

The committee granted the events notice, saying that there was "insufficient evidence" that the prevention of public nuisance licensing objective would be "undermined".