TWO music events in Cornwall will see their capacities increased by thousands due to growing popularity. A Cornwall Council licensing committee agreed to the variation for The Great Estate and Live at Scorrier House despite a representation from a neighbouring resident, who described living next to the events as ‘hell’.

Both annual festivals take place within the grounds of Scorrier House between Truro and Redruth. The Great Estate will see attendance increased from 12,000 to 14,999, with Live at Scorrier House growing from 9,999 to 14,999.

Ben Hall, of Quick Panda Productions, the Cornwall-based company which organises both events, told the licensing committee on Wednesday, November 11: “The fundamental point we would like to make is that we are simply applying to increase our capacity, remaining in the same capacity band. We’re not changing our licensable activities, entertainment hours, permitted noise levels or existing conditions.”

He said the company was confident the growth in numbers attending would be entirely manageable. It would also lead to an increase in security resources.

Regarding The Great Estate, Mr Hall added: “We’re really proud of the festival – we won gold at the Cornwall Tourism Awards recently. The event provides millions towards Cornwall’s economy and supports Cornish jobs, businesses and tourism.”

He said that the festival team had a very good relationship with “most of the neighbours” living around the Scorrier estate. He said that due to “good dialogue” one of two neighbours who had objected to the licence variation had withdrawn their complaint.

“If we identify problems or people are upset with anything then we will do our absolute best to appease them,” added Mr Hall, who said they had moved  campsite fencing away from the boundary of the neighbour who had withdrawn their objection, as well as putting up privacy screening. “They were very happy with that.”

The company had also agreed to install a security position next to his property to ensure no one trespasses. Mr Hall said he would be happy to provide similar security measures for Ben Paton, the neighbour who still objected.

The meeting heard that none of the responsible authorities – such as police, the fire service or the council’s community protection department – were against the capacity increases.

Mr Paton lives with his family in a house that abuts the Scorrier estate and which was once part of it. “For six years, The Great Estate festival and other events have made life at our home hell for multiple days each year, in particular over the summer bank holiday weekend.

“We endure amplified music, intrusive bass noise throughout the day, late into the night and in the early morning. Festivalgoers repeatedly trespass on our property. Our cameras recorded several incidents each day and each night this summer. They’re recurring problems which the existing licence has failed to prevent.”

Mr Paton added: “Living beside the festival is only half of the problem. The other half is trying to get Cornwall Council to take responsibility for regulating it.” He said he has made complaints to the local authority about The Great Festival over the past six years, but stated that the logs of his complaints had not been supplied despite requests.

He questioned why another house received protections within the licence while his property didn’t, despite it being closer to the festival site.

A council solicitor stressed that the committee was dealing with a variation and not a review of the whole licence, so many of the points raised by Mr Paton were not applicable. Members could only consider the increase in numbers.

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Following a period of deliberation, the committee approved the increased capacity at both events, with conditions added. They included security fencing to prevent festivalgoers trespassing on to Mr Paton’s property and the provision of a security person stationed at the boundary of his home and the festivals’ site.