When should apartments be near a nightclub?

Is government policy on sustainability being applied without common sense with regard to residential developments near to entertainment venues? Well according to Trevor Standen, Head of Planning at RadcliffesLeBrasseur, this is so

Standen, who is a lawyer but a negotiator of planning consents, has found his services much sought-after in recent years by the entertainment industry. This is due in part to the fact that his office is in the City of Westminster, the heart of the entertainment industry.

Last year he quashed a decision of Westminster City Council to consent an office block with residential apartments immediately adjacent to a night club. The night club fearful of complaints of statutory nuisance from future residents and objections to licence renewals, instructed him to challenge Westminster’s consent to Derwent Valley Central Ltd. The challenge in the High Court was successful since the council had not adequately assessed the noise consequences, taking into account advice in their own Unitary Development Plan and in the government’s Planning Policy Guidance 24.

Standen commented that in their rush towards sustainability, many councils are paying insufficient attention to the noise compatibility consequences for future and that if they did, it is likely that many developments would not be consented.

This was then followed by another case in Coventry where a Noise Abatement Notice had been issued by the council in respect of the noise suffered by residents in a newly constructed apartment block from a nearby night club. The council through its Planning Department had consented to the apartments, subject to a noise insulation condition, that subsequently was shown not to have been implemented. Its Environmental Health Department had subsequently issued the Noise Abatement Notice on the night club, which had been in place for many years. The difficulty, Standen explains is that in this country, it is no defence for anyone causing a nuisance to claim that others came to it. In the event however, he was able to argue that the notice should have been served on the owners of the apartment block, for not implementing the planning consent, and thus for causing the nuisance. The appeal was therefore successful. These cases have not surprisingly evoked much interest from the entertainment industry.

“In their rush towards sustainability, many councils are paying insufficient attention to the noise compatibility consequences for future residents, and that if they did, it is likely that many proposal would not be consented.”
In Westminster as in certain other areas, Stress Areas have been introduced, which create presumptions against substantial new entertainment uses. Nonetheless, he explains, each case must be looked at on its merits, and hence he was recently able to obtain a consent within such a Stress Area for the new Head Office and a deli/caffe for a large Carluccio’s .

His practice covers many other areas of development, and his client list reads as a sort of who’s who, having for instance having represented all of the major oil companies and British Airways at the T5 Planning Inquiry, BP on numerous filling station applications and appeals, members of the aristocracy, The Crown Estate, The Church Commissioners and Hanson Plc. He has just negotiated a planning and listed building consent for The Federation of British Artists at The Mall Galleries. This was challenging he said, since it had to be consented within three weeks of his involvement! However he is at pains to emphasise that he has also acted for several small businesses and local residents, objecting to planning applications. Unlike many others, much of his time is spent trying to avoid appeals, and entails him liaising with councillors and interested parties prior to the negotiation of the consents with the council officers.

The entertainment world is close knit and news of victories travels very fast. In consequence he has found himself with a continual string of instructions from restaurateurs, bar and nightclub operators and hoteliers. He advises The Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers as well as The Westminster Licensees. He comments that planning is the first hurdle that operators have to face, and it is hence the real battle place, with licensing issues following on. He does not make light of the problems that occur at that stage, but states that unless a planning consent is in place, the likelihood of a licence is somewhat academic. When work commitments permit, he relishes the countryside being keen on walking and lives in The Chilterns, with a holiday residence in Cornwall.