From this Saturday's Gloucestershire Echo.

PARTY, BUT ONLY WITH A LICENCE
Gloucestershire Echo (www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk)
10:30 - 10 July 2004


Ipek Williamson made sure her guests were well looked after at her charity
garden party.


As they nibbled on scones and sipped cups of tea on the lawn, a jazz band
entertained them. At the end of the afternoon, the widow had £160 in the
coffers for cancer charities.


But she hadn't banked on an eagle-eyed Cotswold District Council official
who spotted her event advertised in the village newsletter - and sent her a
£170 bill for a public entertainment licence.


Fifty villagers in Kempsford, near Cirencester, turned up for Mrs
Williamson's party, part of the National Gardens Scheme, complete with teas
and a jazz band.


But Cotswold District Council insisted the event must be licensed.


As a result, instead of handing £160 to charities including Macmillan Cancer
Relief and Marie Curie Cancer Care, Mrs Williamson was left £10 out of
pocket.


She said: "It seems to be totally arbitrary to why they ask for a licence in
some cases and in others they don't.


"We must have someone in the village who reports on these things. It's a
nanny state."


Mrs Williamson says the jazz band she hired for the event has played in
scores of other gardens around the county without being subject to a
licence.


She has now been forced to cancel a jazz dinner and doubts have been cast
over holding a similar fundraising open garden event in August.


"I'm hoping we can go ahead without a licence," she said.


Cotswold District Council's chief licensing officer, Alison Brown, defended
the authority's stance.


"It's national legislation that requires all public events with music, dance
or similar things, held indoors or outdoors to get a public entertainment
licence," she said.


"The fee covers consultations we make with agencies such as the police, fire
service and noise experts."


National Gardens Scheme organiser for Gloucestershire, Stella Martin said:
"It's a bureaucracy gone mad."