ENVIRONMENTAL health officers are objecting to a two-day music festival in Godmanchester in July for fear that the organisers will be unable to control the noise.

Ben Worsam, of Cambridge Street, Godmanchester has applied for a licence for the event in a field off Berry Lane on July 14 and 15 for an audience of up to 500 people to listen to live and recorded music between 11am on the Saturday and 6pm on the Sunday.

He has applied to sell alcohol between midday on the Saturday and 1am on the Sunday, and again between noon and 5pm on the Sunday.

He plans a variety of music, including hip-hop, rhythm and blues, soul and dance from a number of stages.

Huntingdonshire District Council’s environmental health officers have objected on the grounds that they do not believe noise requirements can be met.

Between 9am and 11pm music noise should not exceed 65dB(A) over a 15-minute period at a distance of one metre from noise-sensitive premises, particularly people’s homes. For events that continue beyond 11pm the music noise should not be audible inside people’s homes even with windows open for normal ventilation.

Mr Worsam has told the council that he plans to turn down the music volume late at night and point loudspeakers towards the railway line, but HDC’s neighbourhoods intervention team leader, Richard Hollingsworth, says: “The plans put forward by Mr Worsam do not give confidence that the event can maintain a reasonable level of music to entertain the audience and not cause disturbance at nearby residences.”

Because of that objection on public nuisance grounds, the licence application will be determined next Wednesday by councillors at HDC’s licensing sub-committee.

Mr Worsam told The Hunts Post that the festival was planned as a party to celebrate The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the forthcoming Olympics. He planned to give part of the proceeds to the Baptist Church next to his family barbecue business.

He said he was discussing details of the event with the owners of the caravan park in Bromholme Lane, Brampton, about 500 metres from the proposed festival site, which he believed were the premises council officers were concerned about.

He added that volume controls for the music would be in locked cabinets where unauthorised people could not change them.

He would not be trying to book the live music until the licence had been granted.