Submission from the Welwyn Hatfield Live Music Forum

Submission from the Welwyn Hatfield Live Music Forum

The Welwyn Hatfield Live Music Forum's answer to Question 14 - is informative and shows exactly what we are up against.

This is part of that answer.

A press release dated 11 Dec 2009 http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=6467844
claimed that: 'Proposals to allow pubs and bars to put on live music without the need for a licence could lead to a massive increase in noise problems, council leaders warned today, as a survey was published into the possible impacts of planned changes to the 2003 Licensing Act.'

This claim was reported in the Daily Mail and posted by the LGA on various Local Government websites such as The Local Government Executive, Information Portal for the Public Sector, and also the Neighbourhood Watch. It has since become clear that the LGA survey was not properly conducted, and the results subjected to further 'interpretation' when issued to the press.

In fact, the survey was not of 'council leaders' but of random replies to emails sent to licensing officers. Replies were in fact
anonymous, so LACORS cannot tell if there were multiple replies on behalf of one council, or in fact whether the respondents were council employees at all. Bona fide research does not use self-selecting samples.

The word 'massive' was not used in the survey – this was an invention of the LGA press release. Unfortunately this 'information' has been distributed to Licensing Authorities who in turn have advised Licensing Officers of these 'facts'. See East Devon council for an example
http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/google/knowledge_181209_issue_31.pdf

We support calls by Conservative shadow culture team for DCMS to abandon this consultation on the grounds that consultees may have been misled.