Meeting to decide on electronic music event at Leeds bar

A Leeds venue could miss out on a chance to open until 8am as part of one of the city’s most eagerly anticipated electronic music events of the year.
Old Red Bus Station, LeedsOld Red Bus Station, Leeds
Old Red Bus Station, Leeds

Inner City Electronic is a dance music festival that is expected to take place through the night at a number of venues around Leeds on June 1-2.

However, Leeds City Council’s environmental protection team has submitted an objection to a temporary events notice for one of the venues, The Old Red Bus Station in Vicar Lane, due to noise complaints related to the venue.The venue applied for a temporary licence to serve alcohol, play music and serve food until 8am on the evening of June 1 - June 2.

What does this mean?

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In order for a venue to get permission to host a one-off event outside its licensed hours, it must submit a temporary events notice to the council’s licensing team.

These tend to be accepted, unless an authority submits an objection. If this happens, the notice must be discussed by decision-makers on the council’s licensing sub-committee.

As an objection was submitted to the temporary events notice by the council’s environmental health team, the notice must now be discussed in public.

What is the objection?

A letter from Leeds City Council’s environmental protection team claims it has received complaints about the venue between November 2016 and February 2019 alleging the bar was playing loud music “until at least 4am most weekends”.

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The letter read: “We have recently received notification of a temporary event for June 1-2, 2019. This notification is for an event that is to be part of a multi-venue musical festival over 12 venues and is to extend their permitted hours and to be allowed the sale of alcohol, regulated entertainment and late night refreshment from midnight-8am.

“The premises are a bar, event space and a night club that are located in the city centre. This department has received complaints regarding loud music since November 2016 with the most recent in February 2019 that is still ongoing.

“The complainant alleges that the noise is from loud base music until at least 4am most weekends. The out of Hours Noise service have also witnessed it.

“This department therefore has concerns that the licensing objective for the prevention of public nuisance will not be met should these proposed events take place and thus is formally serving notice that we object to this TEN application.”

What happens now?

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A meeting of the council’s licensing sub-committee will be held at 10am on Tuesday, May 28 to make a decision on whether the notice should be granted, or whether it should uphold a counter-notice, which would disallow the event to take place on the site beyond midnight.

In the meantime, bar management is set to have a meeting with the council’s environment team this week to discuss outstanding noise complaints.

The objection letter from environmental protection added: “As a result of our ongoing investigation, this department is having a meeting with the management of the bar on May 23 to discuss a way forward and the possible actions that we may take.”

What is Inner City Electronic?

The event’s Facebook page describes it as: “A 24-hour celebration of electronic music and culture, with a variety of music, talks and workshops taking place across the city.”

The event is set to take place across 12 venues in the city, and features electronic acts such as Nina Kraviz, Motor City Drum Ensemble and Nightmares On Wax.