Save Live Music At The Farmer’s Boy - Part 2.

Hi, my name is Ros, landlady of The Farmer’s Boy, St. Albans.

I first started this GoFundMe fundraiser to help contribute towards the fairly substantial legal costs that we would have to pay, in order to appeal against a noise abatement notice that had been issued against us by St. Albans District Council. Our heartfelt thanks for your amazing generosity which helped us mount our legal challenge.

Now we are on the other side and we are asking for your assistance once again. This time to help us cover the costs incurred by the council (and payable by us - please see the statement below), as well as the cost of completing the recommended improvement works to our outside area where the bands perform. With this work our alfresco Saturday afternoon music will be able to continue.

Statement on Live Music

Hi everyone. As many of you are aware our appeal against St. Albans District Council over their issuance of a Noise Abatement Notice, finally came to court on Monday 17th April. Rather than keep you in suspense and force you to read to the end, the result of this whole year of legal processes, waiting, legal processes, is that our Saturday live music will continue in its current format. Which is a win in itself. However, this has come at some financial cost!

But what happened at court? Well, in a nutshell costs were agreed. In the fortnight leading up to the case, once all submissions to the court had been declared and absorbed, and with consultation with our legal counsel and sound expert, it became apparent that we had in all probability a 33% chance of success. Whether the presiding magistrates were pro or anti pub or even whether a District Judge was appointed instead, could further influence our chances of success. Taking this into account and with the knowledge that as a result of this process we now had the means by which we could continue, the decision was made on Tuesday 11th April to drop the appeal. Whilst there was an underlying urge to have our (three) day in court, with the odds not in our favour and knowing we had already achieved our aim of being able to continue with our Saturday music, the prospect of financial ruination had we lost meant a pragmatic decision was made.

So you dropped the appeal and therefore lost but you say you won? Well the lesser but still significant financial costs incurred during this process over the last year are certainly not a win. And the Notice Abatement Notice is now active. Nevertheless, the Saturday Music will continue which was always the outcome we were seeking and in that respect, that is a win.

Er, how does that work? Well before all this, as we had tried to work with SADC to make our Saturday events work for all parties, we asked “What actions can we take?”, “What measures can we introduce?”. With the exception of advice that has subsequently been proved to be incorrect, the responses “stop doing the events” or “only do them once a month” weren’t constructive or commercially viable. As part of the councils submission to the court there was an expert sound report that the council had commissioned. Within it were recommendations on what actions would be required by ourselves if the Saturday live music was to continue in its current format. At last the professional guidance we had sort! We also received advice from our own sound expert of further measures we could undertake to reduce noise breakout. After all, we’re not simply looking to do the minimum that is required to make this work but anything we can reasonably do to reduce the noise leakage from our events and so lessen the impact on those around us. Along with some small tweaks to how we run these events across the year, the impact on the neighbour should be sufficiently reduced. Whilst the Notice is now in effect, by taking these steps the likelihood of being deemed to have created a noise nuisance will be significantly reduced and will make any attempt to prosecute for such a nuisance unlikely.

So what happens now? For this week the music will take place inside the pub. In a couple of days building work will commence to build a new sound absorbing perimeter around the gazebos where the bands perform. They will also infill the roof spaces of the gazebos with similar sound absorbent materials. A new high fence will be erected to our western boundary and part of our northern boundary to further deflect any noise break out. A sound meter will be installed with a traffic light warning system that will alert us if the sound level we have programmed is being exceeded. While the Saturday events will continue 2:30pm to 5:15pm, every time there is a bank holiday Monday the event will switch to a Sunday from 2pm to 4pm. That should give you plenty of time to wander up to Mermaid! We will also have an ongoing GoFundMe online to help pay for the expenses incurred during the whole process.

May we express our heartfelt thanks for all the support you have given us throughout this stressful time. Particular thanks go to all those who had booked time off work to come to court and be witnesses on our behalf. We’ll make it up to you! And thank you, as ever, to all who continue to support and enjoy live music. Keep on rockin’!