Letter to Dorset Evening Echo 23 May 2003.

We should ease up on pub music.

It could be inferred from Nigel Canter's letter about Weymouth folk festival (May 10) that it was Roger Gall who brought the Star folk session on Portland to the attention of the borough council.

It wasn't – it was me!

Please be assured it was not done through malice. I merely asked the question why the sessions at the Cove now had to be licensed whereas other similar events did not.

The subsequent letter to the Star requiring them to get a licence has had a completely negative effect: i.e. the musical sessions enjoyed by so many for so long have ceased.

Is this what we really want?

Surely it is an absolute right for people to make music, provided, of course, that it does not contravene nuisance regulations.

Why should it require a public entertainment licence in a pub?

If the event attracts extra customers and the landlord increases his profit – so what? Heaven knows it is difficult enough to make a living in a pub as it is. You might as well say a public entertainment licence is required for a darts final or a crucial pool match. To use 'safety' as an excuse for requiring licenses is, in my opinion, bogus.

A pub with 100 people in it is no safer with a licence than it is without.

I believe that the council's interpretation of the current legislation is unfair, as it discourages musical events by unpaid performers when we should be promoting them.

I will endeavour to have the interpretation changed.

Jim Holt
Portland Borough councillor
Tophill East