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Venues pleased as government amends new planning right to ensure ‘noise impact’ is considered

By | Published on Monday 14 March 2016

Music Venue Trust

The live music community has welcomed confirmation from the government that an extra criterion is being added to the so called ‘permitted development right’ which means that ‘noise impact’ will now be considered as a matter of course when developers utilise this system to convert commercial buildings into residential properties.

As much previously reported, an increasingly big talking point in the grassroots live sector of late has been the tendency for developers to put residential properties near existing music venues – possibly capitalising on the fact that the venue and other cultural activities have made a run-down part of a city desirable again – only for new residents to then complain about the noise of local businesses, resulting in licensing woes for the live music operators.

UK Music, the Music Venue Trust and the Musicians’ Union have been lobbying on this point, pushing for an ‘agent of change’ principle to be added to UK law, whereby any developer building new residential properties near existing venues must anticipate and overcome any potential noise issues that may occur once the new apartments are occupied.

Today’s amendment isn’t full-on agent of change – indeed the government claims current planning laws and guidance provide quasi agent of change anyway (though they don’t really) – but it is a step in the right direction.

The new permitted development right, which has been available to developers on a trial basis for a while now and is about to become a permanent measure, risked increasing the number of incidents where the conversion of commercial property to residential had a negative impact on local venues. The government using its secondary legislation powers to add ‘noise impact’ as a specific criteria for planning officers considering applications under the permitted development right should counter that concern.

Confirming that planning ministers Brandon Lewis and James Wharton had confirmed the rule change last week, UK Music boss Jo Dipple told reporters: “There are times when it seems government does not listen. When it does, and when it acts on what it hears, we should be proud of our political masters. The Music Venue Trust has done an amazing job to raise awareness and push this issue to the top of the governmental ‘in tray’. If these new regulations have the desired effect, grassroots venues around the UK will have additional powers to help them survive and prosper”.

The boss of the there mentioned Music Venue Trust, Mark Davyd, added: “We warmly welcome this breakthrough for the UK’s grassroots music venues. This common sense move by the government provides an opportunity for local authorities to use their powers to ensure that live music continues to play a vital economic, cultural and social role in our towns and cities”.

He went on: “For music venues, this has never been about stopping development or preventing the creation of much needed new housing; it’s always been about ensuring that new development recognises the culture, economy and vibrancy of city centres by building great housing, and enabling existing music venues and new residents to live in harmony. This is a major victory for the UK’s music venues and music fans. The fight to protect, secure and improve them goes on”.



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