Wedding venue in consent mix-up

A popular wedding venue in Marlborough has been forced to cancel bookings months out from the start of the wedding season after a complaint prompted a check of its resource consent.

The Old Barn, set among vines on the outskirts of Blenheim, was converted into a function centre in 2009, with consent to host up to 50 guests. But the owners said there had been a misinterpretation, and had been advertising the venue to host 150 people.

Couples with the venue booked were ‘‘devastated’’ after receiving an email last week saying weddings with more than 50 guests could no longer go ahead.

A Marlborough District Council spokeswoman said it received a complaint about The Old Barn in March regarding noise, operation hours and guest numbers.

The council looked at the resource consent for the venue which consented a maximum of 50 people. They checked The Old

Barn’s website, and found it advertised a venue for up to 150 people.

Council officers subsequently had conversations with the venue owners regarding their current consent and what was required for a consent to legalise this activity, the spokeswoman said.

‘‘Council’s position is consistent with all resource consent holders, it is the responsibility of the consent holder to comply with their consent.’’

The owners applied for a 50-person venue, and there had been no change in ownership since, she said.

The resource consent followed an assessment of traffic, parking, noise and wastewater disposal based on a 50-person venue.

‘‘The resource consent holder has advertised and operated the venue beyond the scope of their consent,’’ the spokeswoman said.

The Old Barn owner Jackie van Asch said they had interpreted the conditions of the consent ‘‘differently’’.

Co-owner Keith van Asch said they understood waste water to be the ‘‘main reason’’ guest numbers had been limited at the time of the application. After submitting their application, they had conversations with the council about measuring waste water so the system was not overloaded.

They were of the understanding that they had rectified waste water concerns, he said.

‘‘We thought that we had agreed with them a way around the limitation of numbers,’’ van Asch said.

The final decision on their resource consent did not reference the maximum number of people, he said.

The decision did say the development should be undertaken in ‘‘accordance with the application’’.

‘‘We’re disappointed we can’t honour the larger events we had organised for this summer,’’ he said.

They had refunded those who had booked the venue for larger functions. They had also enlisted the advice of a Resource Management Consultant and an engineer to help work through the issue.

Van Asch said applying for a new resource consent seemed like their only option, but that would take more than a year.

Blenheim woman Sheree Dillon had booked her wedding at the barn and was ‘‘absolutely devastated’’ to hear she could not use the venue.

‘‘I’m just pleading to the council that they let the weddings that are already booked in go ahead.’’

Dillon said she was probably one of the ‘‘luckier ones’’ as her wedding was booked for April 2021. She had spoken to others who had the venue booked for October.

Dillon had already spent thousands of dollars on festive lights to hang up around the barn, and had invitations printed.

‘‘Everything I’ve now planned for suits that style of the barn, of the rustic look,’’ she said.

‘‘There’s not many places that are like the barn. I can see people looking elsewhere, out of town.’’

Photographer David James said he was working with three couples who had been planning to hold their weddings at The Old Barn this summer.

‘‘I think they’re gutted. I think they’re stressed, upset, and probably feeling a lot of financial pressure.

‘‘Already, most people have been financially put out by Covid, and now they’re probably having to front up a lot more dough for a new venue,’’ James said.

He said The Old Barn was appealing for ‘‘destination weddings’’, where people from out of town would book the venue and travel to Marlborough to get married.