A holiday park's controversial licensing application to allow live and recorded music outdoors until 2am on weekdays has been approved. Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) approved the application to vary the premises licence of Trecco Bay Holiday Park in Porthcawl with a string of new conditions.
A number of residents laid bare their concerns over the application at a BCBC planning meeting last Friday, pointing to previous complaints of noise nuisance at the holiday park. "It was really poor," said Newton resident Simon Judd on recalling his experience of one noisy evening on July 28, when Trecco Bay Holiday Park hosted a karaoke night. You can read about other resident's reactions to the application here.
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"I went down to the ground the next day and there were numerous guests and residents queuing up to make the same complaint. The noise on that night was an absolute disgrace. The whole of the town [was] up in arms and getting this application through was really quite poorly thought of in my view."
Operator Parkdean Resorts agreed to a number of new conditions to address these concerns when the planning meeting recommenced on Monday. These include limiting the outside area where entertainment can take place after 11pm to the pavilion, installing a noise limiter to the sound system, and restricting the number of events that can be held over the course of the year to six occasions of four consecutive days. You can keep up to date with news from across Bridgend by subscribing to our newsletter here.
A log book to record complaints and readily available contact details for a member of staff on site to direct complaints to are also part of the new conditions. The noise levels at the Pavilion will be restricted to about 75 decibels.
At Monday's planning meeting, another resident, Ken Bonham said: "We are looking at having inflicted on us the typical noise that people would [hear] on the high street or in a factory at that time of day." Representing Parkdean Resorts at the meeting, Jonathan Smith from Poppleston Allen Solicitor, said that this level of noise would be restricted to the pavilion area.
Mr Bonham, who has lived in Porthcawl for 40 years later, added: "The prevailing wind in this town is the from south west into the town and it goes past Trecco into Newton. [Any noise] that happens in that caravan park ends up in Newton.
"The noise level gets louder as the entertainment goes on. That is a fact whether it is Tom Jones or Tom Dooley. The acts will start off at a relatively low level and they will build momentum and sound to satisfy the crowd. Having a lack of control over the sound generated by the crowd is a major problem."
Trecco Bay hosts a number of events throughout the year, including the Porthcawl Elvis Festival and Planet Rockstock. Mr Smith of Poppleston Allen said one of the reasons for allowing the playing of live and recorded music outdoors was due to the closure and replacement of its Time Out nightclub with an Indian restaurant.
In his closing statement, Mr Smith concluded: "We have to live in peace and harmony with our local residents. We live next door to each other and we are not here to cause a disturbance. We want to be good neighbours. We do have a positive effect on the local economy and we have enjoyed good working relationships in the past.
"I apologise again for the incident in July. It wasn't done through a noise limiter, it was done on [a] square bit of car park. There was nothing illegal about it. It was just done and it was too loud. We are not making any application to extend the hours for alcohol here.
"There are plenty of ways in which we can be held to account, but we don't want to get to that point. This is about the prevention of public nuisance, not causing it in the first place."
