Brighton council to recommend policies to protect live music pubs

A petition urging councillors to give pubs greater protection​ received cross-party support after it was presented at a full council meeting last week. It means each party agreed that the Environmental Protection Act needs to be reworded by the Government to protect music venues from malicious noise complaints.

Music promoter Mark Stack, who led the campaign, said the petition will now be examined by Brighton’s Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee in the summer, with a view to changing its policies relating to noise abatement notices.

Following an amendment to the petition from councillor Geoffrey Bowden, the council will also introduce a working group, which will come up with a set of recommendations to improve policies relating to music pubs locally, which will then be promoted nationally.

Stack said: “The Conservatives, Labour and the Greens acted in a very rare show of unity in backing the petition. We need to establish a principle that where a venue is long established, well respected and has a good history with its residential neighbours then a single person moving next to it should not be able to close it down with noise complaints.”

Bowden, who is chair of the council's Economic, Development and Culture Committee, said: "The law needs to be looked at at a Westminster level. The working group will come up with recommendations to improve policies locally so issues are dealt with in a more equitable way and then these will be taken to Westminster. The group will include councillors across planning, licensing and culture."

The campaign ties in with the PMA’s Make Some Noise initiative​, which calls on the Government to implement an agent-of-change principle outlining that a person or business that causes a change in environment is responsible for managing its impact.