A pop-up bar and music venue has been given permission to double its capacity when it operates from a clifftop site next summer.
Blue Sky Events had applied for a licence to operate Skybar Watergate Bay from the Trebelsue site next year.
The company has previously held Skybar events in Watergate Bay on Temporary Event Notices (TENs) but has now secured a licence to hold two events a year.
Under the licence the pop-up bar, food and music venue will be allowed to operate two events for no more than 72 hours per event in May, June, July or September.
The venue will be able to have up to 1,000 people attend and can run from 6pm to 1am on Fridays and 11.30am to 1am on Saturdays and Sundays. Under its previous TENs events the Skybar had a capacity of 500.
All the events will be held in marquees or outdoors and they will not take place at the same time as Boardmasters Music Festival or the weeks before or after the larger festival.
Concerns had been raised about the licence application by environmental health officers and Newquay Town Council but Blue Sky had agreed to additional conditions to allay those concerns. These include actions around noise, cleaning the site and traffic.
However the application did attract an objection from Richard and Abby Paull from Treloy Touring Park, which is located close to the Watergate Bay site.
They said they were concerned that people attending Skybar would use the road by their site stating that Boardmasters had “caused huge problems” when festivalgoers used that access route.
The couple said they were also concerned about noise from the events and asked that noise monitoring should take place at their site when Skybar operates. They also asked for a contact telephone number should they have any issues.
Mrs Paull said: “We have had such bad experiences and suffered so badly from Boardmasters over the years we are really quite frightened about the proposals for Skybar doubling in size using the same land.”
She added that they just wanted a reassurance that they would be able to contact somebody should there be any problems.
Joanna Kenny from Newquay Town Council said she was glad that Blue Sky Events had agreed to the additional conditions.
But she added: “This whole thing is overshadowed by, what will I say, the shambles that was the end of Boardmasters, and that is describing it very kindly, in the summer when Treloy really suffered.”
Cllr Kenny said that there had been issues with traffic, noise and litter caused by the annual music festival held at Watergate Bay in August.
However she said that she had no reason to believe that the Skybar would cause similar problems.
James Watson, owner and director of Blue Sky Events, said that Skybar was very different to Boardmasters and said that compared to the 55,000-capacity festival it was a much smaller event which would generate a lot less noise and traffic.
He said that the previous events held at Watergate Bay had attracted no complaints and he was happy to work with the council, Newquay Town Council and Mr and Mrs Paull.
“People think Skybar is a lot bigger than it actually is, people were talking about road closures, we have never closed any roads and have no intention to close any roads and no intention to close footpaths.
“We are applying for a licence for 1,000 people, that is all we wanted to be for. Any talk about growing bigger, if I want it to go bigger I would have to apply for another licence.”
Mr Watson explained that there would be no camping with Skybar and said they had never had any issues with litter, using reusable cups that customers return to get £1 back or can donate to Watergate Bay Surf Lifesaving Club.
Cornwall Council’s licensing act sub committee agreed to grant the application saying that they considered the agreed conditions should be applied. In addition they said that customers should be advised not to use Treloy Road to access the site and that an easily contactable telephone number should be made available to nearby residents throughout the duration of the events.
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