Music Venue Trust Launches National Petition to Protect Live Music Venues

The Music Venue Trust has today launched its second national campaign, an HM Government petition calling on the Secretary of State for the Environment to carry out an urgent review of Noise Abatement legislation to ensure that the proper balance is being struck between the individual rights of owners/occupiers and the right of communities to be able to enjoy live music. 

Recent press stories have highlighted the huge threat posed to live music by developers, with town centre venues facing noise abatement notices from brand new flats and new owners/occupiers. Many of these are historic sites; the Night and Day Cafe in Manchester, The Fleece in Bristol, places where music has been enjoyed for many years without problems. The Music Venue Trust believes that venues should be good neighbours, engaging with their local communities and addressing concerns around noise and anti-social behaviour. But we believe that being a good neighbour is a reciprocal process, and that people who choose to live near to community spaces are accepting the responsibility to behave as a good neighbour to their adjoining music venue, church or community space; anywhere it is inevitable and should be acceptable that noise will exist. We believe this is a common sense approach - if you hate sport, why move next to a football pitch? If you hate music, why move next to a live music venue?

Being a good neighbour within a community is fundamentally important and any neighbour who abuses his fellow neighbours in any way should suffer the appropriate legal consequences. However, we believe that the current provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 that relate to Noise and the serving of Noise Abatement notices have unintentionally provided rights to new tenants or developers to limit and control noise that are outside the intent of the common sense approach, and that these rights are being misused to attempt to prevent local communities from being able to enjoy the normal, established and historic use of these spaces. We call upon the Secretary of State for the Environment to act in partnership with the Department for Culture Media and Sport and the Department for Communities and Local Government to urgently review all relevant legislation and amend it so that the rights of existing venues and other "noisy" spaces are suitably recognised within the Acts in a manner that reflects the needs and wishes of local communities.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: 
SIGN the petition: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/65582 
TELL your friends, your favourite bands, your local musicians that you want them to publicly support this campaign 
CLICK share on the petition page

Introducing our first Venue Champions

Meet our first 4 Venue Champions, music fans who have volunteered to lead local campaigns to help secure the long-term future of the music venues they love. If you would like to be involved in helping then please get in touch with them: 

Andy Vale - The Boileroom, Guildford - AndyPVale@gmail.com

Kate Findlay - The Roadhouse, Manchester - katedfindlay@gmail.com

Jeff Charlwood - The Forum, Tunbridge Wells - jeffcharlwood@gmail.com

Andy Carr - Westgarth Social Club, Middlesbrough - thekidsaresolidgold@hotmail.co.uk

These are just the first of what we hope will be a network across the UK of active fans working together to safeguard the future of small independent music venues.

Venue Champions

The first step in our campaign to secure the future of small independent venues involves a piece of government legislation which allows groups of individuals to nominate a local building as an Asset of Community Value (ACV). An ACV is defined as a building or land used to further the social wellbeing, in particular, though not exclusively, the cultural, recreational or sporting interests of the local community. 

Getting a venue listed will not only help change the perception of it with the local council and help us build a map of valued venues, but also means that if the owner puts the building up for sale we can pause the process to attempt to purchase the building ourselves. In many cases there may be no immediate plans to sell the building BUT this does not mean that you should wait to list your beloved venue as an ACV - we are trying to head off the need for "Save our Venue from closing" petitions by getting in much earlier in the process. This is a long-term plan rather than fire-fighting.

Nominating a venue as an ACV is something that can only be done by local music enthusiasts - it can't be done by the venue itself or by the Music Venue Trust. This is why we need VENUE CHAMPIONS across the UK - people who love their local venue and are prepared to not only work with us to fill in the relevant forms, but who are also prepared to be the public face of a local campaign, to speak to local press, and to recruit at least 20 other local residents to sign the all-important Nominators Form.

If you think that you might be a Venue Champion, please read the Venue Champions PDF

and then email us at musicvenuetrust@gmail.com