Poole festival Grooves on the Green set to run for 3 days

Grooves on the Green is set to return to Ashley Cross for three days this summer, adding Friday to the line-up.

The extra day has been described as a ‘concert evening’ with 70s and 80s style music.

Event organisers say a three-day festival is “more viable” after reporting an increase in running costs.

Janice Crump submitted an application to BCP Council requesting the event’s existing premises licence is varied to provide licensable activities on the Friday, and extend the hours of licensable activities from 7pm to 9pm on the Saturday.

What's on (Image: Newsquest)

But an upset resident “strongly objected” to the proposal, raising concerns over the event’s ‘noise, nuisance and safety’.

The application was discussed at BCP Council’s licensing sub-committee meeting on Wednesday, March 27.

Explaining the reason for a longer festival, Ms Crump said: “Set up costs and the staffing costs have risen dramatically over the year.

“The time involved in doing a two-day event, it’s more worthwhile putting that time into a three day event.”

She also noted that other family-friendly festivals happening across the conurbation were three days, and that Grooves on the Green had to “evolve” to avoid it being “boring”.

Addressing the objection to her application, Ms Crump said it was “a bit unfair” and “made the event seem worse than it was”.

She told the committee: “We feel that our event, over the years, has helped the area, in terms of income and the people it attracts.

“We do work hard. We want to keep residents happy, because we want this event to carry on.”

Ms Crump then responded to the resident’s complaint about noise, saying: “It was mentioned that she couldn’t read a book or watch TV (during the event). I’ve had businesses in that vicinity and been in residential properties and that’s never been an issue.”

Ms Crump said she offered to visit the resident’s property to check noise levels and provided the resident with a contact number should she need it during the event.

She also said even more green space will be left available for public walking at this year’s event to address the resident’s concerns that dog walkers were being restricted.

Grooves on the Green is due to take place on Friday, June 21 to Sunday, June 23.

A decision is yet to be made on the premises licence application.