Clarification...

The problem was, and always has been, the degree of amplification used by certain musicians during their performances. While heavily amplified concerts were interspersed with other performers using normal microphones, the fact remains that, over a period of 11 days, approximately 10 hours a day of musical events took place, and the volume of some exceeded the permissible level of decibels on a number of occasions.

The matter of excessive noise levels has been raised over three years by residents and traders, and while some effort was made towards noise reduction, it has not been sufficient. This situation led to the Environment Agency and Arun District Council licensing officers investigating and taking decisions they deemed necessary.

To suggest that one or two people were responsible for the cancellation of a concert clearly indicates a lack of background information over the past three years. Also questionable is whether an annual letter from us on this subjects constitutes the description of “frequent complaints”.

During the festival, noise levels were monitored on three separate occasions from Martlets Court and each time levels were found to be well above permissable requirements. There were at least five residents from the block, along with other Arundel residents and traders, who complained.

Having knowledge and experience of all the hard work and stress that goes into producing a festival (Patricia’s eight years representing the British Film and Television Producers’ Association at the Cannes Film Festival), we would like to again congratulate the festival organisers.

It is just this one problem that has to be addressed. That a concert had to be cancelled certainly gave no pleasure to residents, traders, organisers, visitors or the Arun District Council.

We can but hope that, by next year, this situation can be peacefully resolved, to everyone’s satisfaction.

Andrew and Patricia Warren

Martlets Court

Arundel