CITY MOVES TO EASE LIVE-MUSIC RESTRICTIONS
Proposed changes to licensing policy that would ease the sound restrictions on live music venues in Edinburgh are headed for their first hearing in March, reports Lisa Rogers.
City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) is responding to demands made by musicians and venue managers 14 months ago to relax the strict regulations that insist music must be 'inaudible' outside the venue.
Many in the music community think this stipulation has forced small music venues to close across the city.
A meeting on 22 February offered a progress report from CEC officials – including the results of the city's first Live Music Census. They also proposed:
- changes to licensing policies at local and national levels
- a pledge to keep live music as a centerpiece in the city's new Cultural Policy
- a plea for the music community to get involved in the Council's ruminations through its 'Music Is Audible' working group.
A video of the meeting is available online here.
Councillor Norma Austin Hart, who chairs the Music Is Audible working group, pressed music lovers to become involved in the formal processes to change CEC and Scottish regulations in order to improve the prospects for small venues. She admitted, though, that the lengthy efforts needed are 'not for the faint-hearted'.
Key changes
The meeting focused on two main issues: bringing a more nuanced approach to the Council's licensing policy for music venues, and pressing for a change in Scottish law to give venues that abide by the policy a stronger position when someone complains.
A proposed re-wording of CEC's licensing rules would replace the requirement that music be 'inaudible' outside the music venue with a requirement that music should 'not be an audible nuisance to neighbouring residential properties'.
The process to make this change would be lengthy. The first step lies with the Licensing Forum, a group of 25 volunteers, mainly from community councils. The Forum will consider the proposed changes at its next meeting. If in favour, it will recommend them on 14 March to CEC's Licensing Board, the official body that issues licences and decides compliance issues. If the Board moves the changes forward, that initiates a series of public consultations.
The proposed change in national legislation suggests introducing the 'agent of change' principle. This would mean that newcomers would be responsible for fitting in with the existing situation. For example, a new music venue would have to introduce adequate soundproofing to meet the 'audible nuisance' policy, but newly arrived residents would not be able to stop music in a venue with a single complaint if the venue were already in compliance with the licensing policy. Under the current policy, new residents can force existing music venues to pay for additional soundproofing and can stop venues from introducing live music.
Introducing the 'agent of change' principle would take even longer.
The Live Music Census detailed the significant role that musicians, audiences, venues and their staff play in the city's economy – about £40 million a year.
In its snapshot survey on 6 June 2015, the census found more than 11,000 people at 86 live music venues. Overall, the census estimates that there are at least 267 live music venues. Because most of these venues are pubs or bars, the strict wording of the current licensing policies means that they're likely to stop hosting musicians if someone complains.
The report concludes that the current licensing policies have a chilling effect on live music in the city. In Broughton Street, the Barony Bar retimed its music sessions to earlier in the evening in response to a complaint. Last March, the Phoenix Bar stopped its 30-year live music altogether following complaints.
Starting points for those interested in these issues are the city-centre community councils, CEC's Music Is Audible working group, CEC's Cultural Policy revisions group Desire Lines, and the #LiveMusicMatters feed on Twitter.
[UPDATE: SEE ALSO 'BANGING A DRUM FOR COMPROMISE' (BREAKING NEWS, 4.3.16).]
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Stephen McGowan @LicensingLaws
@theSpurtle good piece; Inaudibility is a condition on every licence, so if changed all would be called to a hearing under 2005 Act.
Stephen McGowan @LicensingLaws
@theSpurtle and note the board is not obliged to follow forum recommendations, eg their ID cards proposal which was rejected.
Rhona Stewart Cameron This is all wrong. Live music should be kept away from built up residential areas. I love music but there's a place for it and not next door, above or underneath where people live. People making these decisions probably live in nice suburban homes and have never experienced what it's like living next door to live music.
Brian McNeil Rhona, if you haven't noticed Edinburgh is a "heavily tenemented city" (Cllr Hart's words). If you move in next door to a pub, and haven't checked what they put on in-terms of entertainment, it is your own fault you're living next door to live music. That's what the Agent of Change principle is about. In the meantime, the proposed changes to licensing policy are to stop one complainant from spoiling a pub full of people's evening; and, potentially having a local business closed down.
Mo Moxy Rhona Stewart Cameron Brian McNeil. it is the CEC inconsistent policies and their lack of common sense applying them which causes trouble to us citizens, this is why is important to raise the issues to them, as the Live Music campaign is doing. In one hand the CEC goes to the extreme to suffocate businesses for the wrong reasons while on the other hand ignores the genuine issues that many people like you experience, this is what is wrong and not us supporting the cultural life of the city. The Live Music campaign is open and inclusive, all voices are heard, our interest is for the CEC to draw their policies based on RESPECT for the communities.
@theSpurtle does the council not think we residents have enough noise to put up with? last night it was boom boom boom from fireworks at RYB
@CityCycling @theSpurtle I can see how people in a regional backwater would think like that. But people in a capital city? Ldn,Dublin,Embra?
@LeithCitizenWhy should city residents be subjected to unwanted noise? living in a city is the only option open to loadsa folks. @theSpurtle
Alexander Frei @Protonmale
@theSpurtle that long process may stymie the early efforts of Edinburgh's hotly tipped boy band, The Corries.
Lizzie Rynne @CityCycling
@LynnHenni well if they can afford it they would probably move somewhere else. And a ghetto will be created. @theSpurtle
@LynnHenni Vibrancy for me is living next to the cycle path and all the different folks who pass along it. @theSpurtle
Alexander Frei @Protonmale@LynnHenni @theSpurtle One persons 'vibrancy' is anothers 'sleep deprivation'. Residents have rights too.@CityCycling @theSpurtle Sadly, people move to areas for lively vibe only to change their minds when it's too close. #suburbsarequiet
@LynnHenni that's the point isn't it? Even folks who think they might like the noise, really can't stand it night after night. @theSpurtle
@CityCycling@theSpurtle some of us enjoy living near music venues & get irritated when people move in & start complaining about the noise.
@CityCycling@theSpurtle so imagine p/t cyclist moves in then decides cycle path too busy, people cycling too fast and tries to close down.
Raksha Wolf I welcome any move to support Edinburgh's important live music scene, which helps to support so many of us through the many cultural events for which Edinburgh is internationally known. A supported and credible local art and music culture is the basis upon which Edinburgh can maintain its position in the international cultural scene.
Is it not the case that many areas become “built up” around the premises in question? Where do you propose we have our live music? I have a great wee band but I don’t think I could quite fill Murrayfield.
Ian William Pettigrew Lizzie Rynne: “Who would choose to live next to a live music venue?”Answer: There are some who choose to do so and then complain because the sound of amplified music can be heard just above the hum of their own refrigerators on a calm night with the windows fully open and when there is no traffic in the street outside; All that notwithstanding that the music is not loud to the point of “annoyance” and finishes at a reasonable hour.
Rhona: “Live music should be kept away from built up residential areas.”
Is it not the case that many areas become “built up” around the premises in question? Where do you propose we have our live music? I have a great wee band but I don’t think I could quite fill Murrayfield.
Alexander Frei @Protonmale: “Noise = unwanted sound.”
So you don’t want live music near you. Tell me, are there no other “unwanted sounds” around these hand-wringing, embittered complainers? No loud traffic, road works, persons shouting, etcetera? Is it just music we have a problem with?
Vexatious NIMBYs like this (and you three as well I guess) are seeking to strangle live music in the home of the world’s greatest Arts Festival.
Funnily enough, the MIA / KMLE initiatives seek to look after the interests of ALL stakeholders, including the residents; but this idiotic “inaudibility” / “lone complainer” situation must be entertained no longer.
I look forward to the Agent of Change principle being adopted… You choose to live in the same street as premises that offer live music? Tough…
I used to live on a farm. The crowing rooster could be quite a nuisance at silly o’clock and there was often cow shit on the driveway; tractors revving all night during the harvest time… Rather an irritation, but it all goes with the territory of living on a farm and so I put up with it… Quite happily in fact…
You could always go and live on the Bass Rock… Ah… Perhaps not a great idea. There’s lots of NOISE there as well. Unamplified at that…