| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:No live music events in Gunnersbury this summer | |
| Posted by: | Joanna Biddolph | |
| Date/Time: | 16/05/26 12:25:00 |
| There is another possibility ... As background, there seems to be a misunderstanding of the roles of licensing and planning. The processes are wholly independent of each other. As I understand it: ** On licensing: The residents' licence review application was submitted many months before it was considered at a panel hearing. Residents are not responsible for the delay between the two or the timing of the hearing which was set by the council. Regardless, the CIC has a licence for events and there is no licensing reason to stop them from happening this year, though with some stricter terms to comply with. ** On planning: The Gunnersbury Park CIC employs consultants to make/support its planning (and licensing) applications and together they were responsible for the timing of their own application for a 10-year blanket planning permission for events. Was the consultant unaware that there were strong opinions locally on what happens in the park and around it before, during and after festivals or did they and the CIC assume that there would be no objections? Or did they assume that, even if there were objections, no matter whether few or many, that LBH would waive through the application? Or were they unaware that councils should avoid contentious issues in the run-up to local elections and that that fact could affect timing including the date for it to be considered by the planning committee? If they didn't consider that there could be a high number of objections, what does that say about the CIC's listening abilities since 2018 when the first festival generated so many complaints, and since including very publicly at two Chiswick Area Forums including one last year? Equally significantly, can it be that planning consultants and the CIC had forgotten that there would be back and forth discussions between planning officers and the applicant as they consider the objections - and that they can tale time? These failings have nothing to do with residents. Blaming residents for delays for which they aren't responsible isn't fair. Failing to apply in good time for planning permission for this year's festival programme has nothing to do with residents. The CIC has eight years of experience of making licensing and planning applications - and employs consultants for advice. The CEO has said, in public and several times, that it costs the CIC £25,000 for each planning application. The CIC should question whether the fee (assumed to be £25,000) spent on the 10-year planning application - including on timing the application so it could be resolved before this year's festivals - was money well spent. |