John King comments: A pub supervisor is fired after residents complain about music. In addition, Warrington Council punish the premises and future licensees by imposing a noise limiter and changing the licence so that music finishes at 11pm instead of 12.
Any live music, including non-amplified folk sessions which are very unlikely to cause any noise concern are also being limited and prevented. This is the danger when in practice the only real way any music can take place is as licensable Regulated Entertainment.
As there is no legal way to licence excessive noise - the use of permissions under the Lcensing Act to deal with noise is a complete nonsense but is still the reason why many would be concerned when there are any moves to address the effect this has on the health of all live music.