In answer to Steve Harris who doubted whether concert tents have ever blown-down at festivals it happened several times to the Heineken 'Big Top' Festival in the mid-90s, held in a huge marquee on windy seafront sites just like The Ham.

At Brighton the entire 'Big Top' blew down overnight and we lost the whole of the following day's show.

At Portsmouth when the wind got up we had to stop the show half-way through a headline band's act and evacuate the tent.

And health & safety regulations are much tighter now than they were then!

You have to remember that there are power cables and lighting rigged to the sides and roof of the tent. Believe me, it really is dangerous if the wind gets up.

The council will insist on £15 million public liability insurance and a whole raft of safety measures before they licence the tent. That will cost a substantial sum of money... probably more than for the Knowle arena where the audience were out in the open.

Gordon Newton is well-respected as a music promoter and as a (retired) promoter myself I wish him lots of luck and very good weather.

Organising major outdoor events is, however, a very different ball-game to promoting concerts and dances inside halls.

I think some of the people voicing concern about licensing and safety issues have every right to be concerned until the licence is actually issued by the council.

Why do you think Steve Heap withdrew? If he couldn't make it all add up financially and if he'd had enough of the local council's licensing and environmental health officers do you really think others can make it all happen 'just like that' especially when they don't even have the £60,000 council funding that Steve enjoyed.

Unlike some on this board I have no axe to grind but I do feel an obligation as someone with a lifetime's experience in the events industry to warn the likes of Lizzie not to take licensing and safety issues so lightly.

At the end of the day you are talking about people's lives here. It may sound melodramatic but lives have been lost at major events in the UK and abroad when infrastructure failed.

None of us want to see that happen in Sidmouth.