Say on festival
Residents who wish to make comments about the forthcoming Doune the Rabbit Hole event should have time to do it.
Organiser Jamie Murray has given an assurance that the licence application for the 2018 event will be submitted by the end of January.
The arts and music festival is due to take place on the Cardross Estate between Port of Menteith and Arnprior.
This year’s Doune the Rabbit Hole, held over three soggy days in August, prompted complaints from residents about excessive noise levels and the festival’s finishing up time of up to 3am.
Stirling Council held a meeting with the festival’s organisers in September to discuss the complaints they had received.
Ian Breakenridge, member of Arnprior Community Council, which has concern about noise levels at the festival, said they discussed the festival licence application at their meeting last month.
They were told the licence application would be submitted by the end of December at the earliest and end of January at the latest.
Mr Breakenridge said: “Once the application is in, it would be up to us to make a submission. We would have to object as there doesn’t seem to be scope to consider any point we wish to raise otherwise.”
Mr Murray, artistic director of the festival, confirmed he had met with council officials to discuss the complaints and preparations for next year’s festival.
However, his understanding of the timetable for submitting the licence was slightly different.
“I can give an assurance the licence application will be in by the end of January,” he added.
“If the council could have dealt with it sooner, we would have had it in by the end of October. I told them that in September but we are now working towards the January timescale.”
Mr Mur ray admitted the application for the licence to run in 2017 event should have been submitted early in the year but was delayed because of a staffing issue and not lodged with the council until early July.
He added, however: “In the eight years we have been doing the festival, we have not had the licence approved until the day of the start of the festival or the day before.
“That makes it impossible to plan and it’s usual in the festival world. I can’t understand why Stirling Council feels the need to drag it out in this way.”
Stirling Council say its “best practice” for organisers of events of this type was that they submit applications 10 weeks prior to the proposed event.
Trossachs and Teith Tory councillor Martin Earl, who has taken up the residents’ complaints, said: “As long as there is an agreement between licensing service and the applicant that the application will be submitted, at the latest, by the end of January it will provide plenty of time for scrutiny as previously agreed.
“My understanding was that the application was to have been submitted by the end of this calendar year.
“I would also suggest that the council should write to the two community councils involved providing clear information as to the process that will be followed and how they can submit their views for consideration.”