Despite complaints from nearby residents, noise levels from a four-day music festival in the south Pembrokeshire countryside were within the permitted levels, both the organisers and Pembrokeshire County Council have confirmed.
The successful Westival event, which took place on the outskirts of Manorbier last weekend, attracted 1500 people and ‘overwhelming support’ from the local community.
But one resident of nearby Penally, said he endured ‘four days and nights of disturbance’, being kept awake until gone 3am on two of those occasions.
The resident, who did not wish to be named, said there was no mention of a noise helpline on the Westival Facebook page, and he made 20 calls to the festival enquiry telephone line before anyone answered.
He added: “The night-time sound levels agreed by PCC in the festival's noise management plan were higher than those normally agreed for festivals. They agreed 62db between 11pm and 1am, and 59db between 1am and 3am. as compared to a recommended night time limit of49dB."
However, data from noise monitoring carried out by Pembrokeshire County Council’s public protection team and a noise consultant was ‘all well within the permitted limits’, a spokesman for the authority said.
He added: “The authority were aware of concerns of noise pollution from both the local community and business owners, and the public protection team were in regular discussions over the weekend with their noise consultant to highlight any potential issues.
“Noise monitoring was undertaken across three key areas in St. Florence, Manorbier and Penally Heights by both the public protection yeam and the noise consultant .
“The noise mitigation measures operated on site worked effectively in reducing the impact of noise pollution. Although audible at certain points and times during the evening in Penally Heights, the data recorded was all well within the permitted limits set out by the noise management plan."
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Westival managing director Jack Lear said: “The event was a great success and it was great to see 1500 locals and tourists come together after our last two events were cancelled because of Covid restrictions.
“We support over 100 small and local businesses during the event and help promote the beautiful Pembrokeshire to people all over the UK.
“Our event helpline number is in bold on the homepage of our website and monitoring 24 hours a day during the course of the event.
“We hired sound experts to help us manage the sound and we collaborated with Pembrokeshire County Council to ensure we stayed within acceptable levels. At no point did we exceed the sound levels that were accepted in our licence.
“We've had overwhelming support from the local community, and the council has been very supportive, and I'm very grateful for their help.
“There will always be some people that oppose events, businesses and innovation, and would prefer our community to retain Draconian restrictions that we have all endured over the last couple of years.”
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