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| Pilton (Glastonbury) Festival In A Year That Was NOT During a Global Pandemic |
As reported by Somerset Independents yesterday, local residents have written formal objections and raised a large number of concerns at a public meeting about the hastily-planned proposal by Glastonbury Festival Events Limited (GFEL) to put on a two-day concert, possibly in September (date TBA), at Worthy Farm in Pilton.
We say hastily-planned, because more papers were being presented "on-the-fly" at the Mendip District Council (MDC) Licensing Sub-Committee where the application was being considered. They were not on the published agenda. They were not even on the "Updating" of the agenda.
Members of the public and local residents had not seen those papers prior to the meeting. For MDC, just reading parts out, or putting them briefly up on screen in the virtual meeting, was deemed to be adequate. It isn't right. It isn't legal. But then this is Mendip District Council. It is quite clear in the relevant legislation that such "ambushing" is not allowed.
And still more details were not set. Even GFEL's own legal representative, Mr Phipps, apologised for the lateness of papers.
Residents deserve better than Mendip District Council and its councillors.
Another Concert In A Field In Somerset
If you didn't know, Glastonbury Festival is not in Glastonbury. It is at Worthy Farm in Pilton, a village on the A361 between Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet. The road is not a dual carriageway.
Large sections of this road are at low speed limits, including a 30mph through Pilton that is sometimes enforced by Police speed check vans.
Pilton is not Wembley Stadium. It is not in an urban area. The "in a field" location in Somerset is part of the charm of the Glastonbury Festival.
As we have said before and made clear to the organisers when we have queried them, Glastonbury Festival is a great global event.
Mendip's Cosy and Inappropriate Relationship
But the Festival impacts on local residents over a wide area, and in a negative and sustained way if not managed. There appears to be a growing trend of organising "spin-off" events. That's fine, if it is managed correctly and with the impact on local residents minimised.
But it isn't minimised. If it was, we wouldn't be hearing about so many complaints from residents. Not just for this new event, but all events at this venue.
It is reasonable to conclude then that local authorities including Mendip have given the Festival too much of the "light touch" of regulation over the years. Mendip District Council boasts on its website of a "good relationship" with the organisers.
Perhaps that is why local residents complaints have not been addressed, because Mendip has the wrong priorities?
Covid-19 Global Pandemic
During Covid-19, there are very grave and substantial reasons for the Festival to have been cancelled two years in a row. Those reasons involve protecting the health of the public - not just for the visitors to Somerset, but also for the local residents and residents across Somerset.
Somerset Independents was formed to protect Somerset residents.
We have written again to another of the local authorities - Somerset County Council's Director of Public Health, Trudi Grant - to ask her why she had not objected to the plans. It could turn out that she has, but when we checked the representations there were none directly from her. Perhaps she had delegated authority to Mendip public health staff. We await her reply.
But in the light of the growing concern over new Covid-19 variants, an event for 50,000 people when Covid-19 is still a Global Pandemic should not happen after partial planning, late planning or bad planning. And it would be wrong if approvals were rushed by Mendip District Council in an effort to please GFEL, as alleged by members of the public.
It appears from what we have heard from residents and Mendip Council itself, that the relationship between the licensee and licensor is far too cosy.
The two-day "September" event was described as "to compensate" for the loss of
Pilton (Glastonbury) Festival, according to a report involving Daniel
Mumby (Somerset Local Democracy Reporter) on BBC Radio Somerset this
evening, Thursday 13th May 2021. Here is a transcript of the interview. It appears that Mr Mumby was using a press release as the basis for this compensatory claim.
Any compensation for loss is not a valid reason for Mendip District Council to make approvals of any event where the public have grave doubts about Covid-19 and public health, traffic, noise, lack of due legal process and other issues. Public health trumps profit.
Mendip Approving or Disapproving of What, Exactly?
It is also clear that partial information is known about the event, and partial plans have been submitted to Mendip District Council. Despite this, MDC are due to make a decision on it over the next few days. Not in public, but behind closed doors after a protracted seven hours, plus another session, in public. But then, residents are used to MDC making important decisions in private, behind closed doors, as Somerset Independents proved to the External Auditor Ernst and Young, who agreed to make MDC revise minutes of meetings involving millions of pounds to make them more open and transparent (but still not revealing the full detail).
What Have Residents Said and When?
Residents said that the event threatens noise, traffic and public health due to the deadly Covid-19. Testing for the disease is not certain until close to the event, according to Marietta Gill, Mendip District Council (MDC) Public Health Officer at the virtual meeting.
The new event was not being planned properly, said residents. MDC had not advertised the application properly, they said. And the event did not even have a proposed date, something else that is causing great worry for local residents and how they plan their lives.
Those residents that have complained were relatively lucky to have heard. Why do we say this?
Residents from outside Pilton were not consulted or notified about the event, as confirmed by Somerset Independents in direct contact with the Licensing Officer at MDC, Jack Godley. Mendip did not consult residents outside Pilton despite the fact that events at this site have upset local residents from a wide area in the locality for many years. Complaints have not gone away, as is documented in MDC documents obtained by Somerset Independents.
What Was This Meeting?
As we reported yesterday, the comments came at the Licensing Sub-Committee of Mendip District Council on Wednesday 12th May 2021 AND also adjourned to Thursday 14th May 2021, residents spoke with their outrage, upset and worry about the proposal. The meeting went on for SEVEN hours, and then adjourned to the next day.
Members of Somerset Independents watched and live-tweeted from the virtual meeting.
MDC officers were in a "rush to please" the organisers GFEL, said one resident, who also challenged the legitimacy of the Licensing Sub-Committee.
Another local resident spoke very eloquently despite
being very upset about how GFEL events had affected her and her family's life and other Pilton residents too,
over many years. What she described was truly horrific, including riots, intimidation and criminal activity.
When asked by a councillor whether the impact on local residents improved recently, the resident said that they "don't give a monkeys" about local residents and that they had not improved.
And another Pilton resident, claimed that Mendip District Council did not provide her with a map of the proposal until after the closing date for comments and that Mendip did not display the "blue notices" properly.
She also showed the big difference between how residents near Heaton Park in Manchester were consulted and involved in decisions about events near them, and contrasted this with how Mendip and GFEL were failing to do so.
You would think that councillors would speak up to support residents. No, not Mendip councillors. Instead of supporting the residents, Mendip Councillor and Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Lib Dem Simon Carswell, attacked them by mis-quoting the resident as saying that MDC officers were "placating" the organisers, GFEL. The resident corrected him on what he actually said (above).
Conflicts of Interest By Councillors Sitting in Judgement
It is a huge conflict of interest for Cllr Carswell in his role, to be sitting in judgement over this Licensing decision. During the meeting, when asked if he wanted to adjourn the meeting, Cllr Carswell said:
"I just want to get this finished", and also in the meeting:
"I might have missed it, I've got a migraine."
We do not think that Cllr Carswell was taking to the meeting with an open mind or giving due consideration to the decision. We think that he had made up his mind already.
And another Lib Dem councillor on the Committee, Helen Sprawson-White, appeared to question the veracity of residents' claims about the impact on their lives, when she asked whether the Festival had improved in terms of its impact on residents. She was told, in no uncertain terms, that the Festival organisers "do not give a monkeys" about local residents.
Cllr Sprawson-White did not declare an interest at the beginning of the meeting. She is very close to Green Cllr Francis Hayden, having defended him when we asked him why he had not paid his council tax. Cllr Hayden was not embarrassed, as the Stoke-on-Trent councillors who did not pay were. Cllr Hayden did not apologise for not paying his council tax. He did not tell us whether he had now paid or not. He did not resign. Instead, Cllr Hayden told us:
"My own income depends on catering for weddings, parties and music festivals (including Glastonbury) all of which have been cancelled for the last year."
In which case, why didn't Cllr Sprawson-White declare an interest?
This also begs the question, why didn't Cllr Hayden declare this on his Declaration of Interest, which has not been updated since he was elected in May 2019?
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| Excerpt From Cllr Hayden's Declaration of Interest |
It is a criminal offence for a councillor to not keep their interests updated within 28 days of a change. Nothing is mentioned about his employment at Glastonbury Festival.
But then, as we have documented elsewhere on this website, this dodgy councillor did not pay his council tax, either - not just for a couple of months, but from April 2020 to February 2021.
And there is another councillor who did not pay their council tax. MDC have tried to cover it up and refused to tell us which councillor it was.
Par For The Course for Mendip
Sadly this lack of democracy from the councillors is not unusual for Mendip District Council. It is par for the course. It is a Council in disarray, as Somerset Independents has proved in its successful challenges to MDC's failures in governance, such an unlawful minutes of meetings conducted behind closed doors, despite the Lib Dem Council Leader Ros Wyke claiming them to be "open".
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| Unlawful Minutes of the Mendip District Council Phoenix Sponsorship Board |
Mendip councillors do not stand up for residents and they do not stand up for due process. It seems that MDC always seem to have other priorities than representing the public and standing up for the public interest, despite being a public body and paid for by public money.
Somerset Independents will keep standing up for residents, especially when those paid to do so - the elected councillors and Mendip officers - still fail to do the jobs that they are paid public money to do.
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