Hyde Park events must meet new licensing measures

A raft of measures that will impact on the events held in Hyde Park have been revealed following a licensing review by Westminster Council. The Royal Parks, Environtmental Health and the council have agreed three main measures that will come into effect immediately:

• Improved provisions for safety at the end of concerts including more stewards paid for by the Royal Parks.
• Increased provision for cleaning up mess left after concerts both in and around Hyde Park, with costs met by the Royal Parks.
• Additional measures to deal with low-level sound and more monitoring points ie. Music with a repetitive bass beat, which will be tested through the 2012 events and re-assessed later in the year.

As of 2013, the number of concerts will be reduced from 13 to nine and the number of attendees will also decrease from 80,000 to 65,000, and in some case 50,000.

The review was called upon following the increase of complaints by local residents.

Cllr Audrey Lewis, Westminster Council’s Licensing Chairman said: 

“Legally, as central London’s licensing authority, we have a duty to balance the needs of local residents with the desire of concert organisers to hold events and the compromise that the committee has reached tonight does all of this. We will monitor the additional noise control measures and continue to work with both concert organisers and residents to ensure this is an effective solution to concerns raised.”

As complaints almost doubled between 2008 and 2011, the council’s Environmental Health department submitted an application to review the licence and made clear that, in doing so, it had been reasonable and proportionate.