Agenda item

            The Building Control Manager informed the Committee that the City and Neighbourhoods Services Department held a Seven-day Annual Outdoor Entertainments Licence for Lower Crescent Park, which it transferred to any organiser seeking to hold an event. Under the terms of the licence, entertainment was permitted to take place from Monday to Sunday between the hours of 11.30 a.m. and 11.00 p.m., with special conditions being attached in relation to occupancy levels, early consultation with residents and businesses, extended hours and addressing complaints. 

            He reminded the Committee that, at its meeting on 17th May, it had agreed to extend the standard hours on the Entertainments Licence to enable entertainment to take place within the park until midnight on the nights of 30th June and 1st July, as part of the inaugural Focal Festival, which celebrated and promoted local foods and drinks.  The organisers were now planning to hold a Christmas festival on the nights of Thursday, 21st, Friday, 22nd and Saturday, 23rd December and had applied to operate till 1.00 a.m. on each occasion. The People and Communities Committee, at its meeting on 10th October, had granted approval for the use of the park.

            He reminded the Committee further that it was a standard condition of an Outdoor Entertainments Licence that all requests to operate beyond the permitted hour of 11.00 p.m. should be placed before the Committee and that it had, recently, approved requests for similar events, such as the Belfast Beer Festival and Oktoberfest in Custom House Square and the Belfast City Blues Festival in Writers’ Square.

            He explained that, since the applicant was seeking to extend the hours permitted under an existing licence condition, rather than vary the Entertainments Licence itself, there had been no requirement for the application to be advertised. Whilst the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service and the Police Service of Northern Ireland had offered no objection to the application, they would, in line with events of this nature, be invited to attend meetings in which public safety, traffic management, transport and wider operational issues were being discussed. He advised the Members that one noise complaint had been received during the previous event, which had not warranted formal action, and that the Council’s Environmental Protection Unit would be assessing a noise report for the forthcoming festival to ensure that disturbance would be kept to a minimum.

            The Building Control Manager added that the organisers had held discussions with officers from the Building Control Service and the Parks Service to establish an appropriate occupancy level for the venue and around the arrangements to be put in place to manage the event safely. In addition, the organisers would be required to provide surrounding commercial, offices and licensed premises with details of the festival.

            The Committee agreed that the standard hours on the Seven-day Annual Outdoor Entertainments Licence for the Lower Crescent Park be extended to enable entertainment to be held till 1.00 a.m. on the nights of Thursday, 21st, Friday, 22nd and Saturday, 23rd December, as part of the Christmas Focal Festival, subject to all technical requirements being met to the satisfaction of Council officers.