Farm to rein in on late-night noise

A diversified Herefordshire farm has agreed to rein in its noisy late-night events.

An earlier meeting of Herefordshire Council’s licensing subcommittee previously put off a decision on revising the licence of Out to Grass, Cradley near the Worcestershire border, until they were able to visit the site, which they did earlier this month.

The council’s regulatory service manager Elisabeth Laughland told the reconvened meeting she had been investigating noise complaints, monitoring, advising and enforcement matters at the site for over a decade.

Officers were now seeking a review of its licence “due to ongoing and escalating concerns regarding noise nuisance issues”, with the venue having “grown from hosting occasional festivals, to now operating as a private-hire venue and festival site nearly every weekend through the summer”, she said.

She played to the committee sound clips demonstrating the late-night noise at nearby properties last summer, saying: “You’ve got huge sound waves, the bass is a physical thump on your body.”

Local resident John Ellis said he and wife Nita had moved to what was to be their dream home in the “beautiful and generally quiet” Herefordshire countryside, but this has “become a nightmare due to the noise”, with walls “actually shaking from the rave music”.

“It’s a physical and mental torture,” he said. “We would sell our house, but would anyone buy it?”

Nita Ellis added: “As you can probably see and probably hear in my voice, I now suffer depression and I am on medication for it because beat gets into my head.”

Ewen Macgregor, agent for site owner Ian Johnson, said: “We are doing our best to try and engage with the local community” over the issue, while there is ongoing investment in measures to contain the noise and a noise management plan is being implemented at the farm.

A noise abatement notice served on the venue “is before the court in later in this month and then there will be a trial at some point later on in the year”, he added.

The venue proposed to the committee a series of conditions including ending live music outdoors at 11pm, and limiting such events to between Thursdays and Sundays.

“We would be content to limit regulated entertainment  to 40 days a year,” Mr Macgregor added. “Anything less kills the business.”

After an hour’s deliberation, the committee agreed to this limit, but with a maximum of five “large / high impact events” per year.