A farm near Thirsk has been granted a license to play live music and serve alcohol despite objections from members of the community.
Monk Park Farm applied for the licence on 8 August, and at the beginning of this week, North Yorkshire Council approved this in a meeting.
Mark Navin, general manager at the venue, explained the purpose of the application.
He said: “We’re just looking for flexibility to do some nice evening events which complement what we do.”
The council granted the licence, meaning the venue can play music and serve alcohol from 10:00am to 10:00pm on up to a maximum of 250 days a year.
Mark said: “We’ve got no desire to be a festival venue. That’s not what it is, it’s literally to do what we’ve done, but just expand on them.”
The farm hosted some adult’s only evenings in the summer, where people could attend the venue without their children, which was ‘hugely popular’.
Mark held two public consultations with people from the village and the holiday park next door, in an attempt to hear any concerns.
Following the hearing on Monday, the council decided to grant them the alcohol and music licence, despite some members of the community opposing it.
A popular concern amongst residents was the noise levels that the farm may have during events, in response to this, Mark assured that the farm will have a noise management council to determine the levels and will have a noise management consultant.
He said: “We don’t want to be a nuisance, we don’t want to annoy the neighbours, that just works against us then, because we spend most of our time fighting objections and complaints.
“We want to do it responsibly. We’re actually true to the word, and that’s what we’ll be. I mean, at the end of the day, if we’re a nuisance, the council will put a stop to it.”
In the council documents, it also showed an opposing letter from the parish council, which stated the licence would be ‘inappropriate for a rural location’.
Mark argued that there are already similar business models in place that happen across the country, and that lots of them are successful in how they work with the local area.
He added: “You could argue Thirsk Racecourse is in a rural location, and it’s a far bigger venue than us.
“There’s lots of diversification on farms and things up and down the country who are doing this sort of thing, so it’s not like we’re breaking the mould.”
The council imposed a condition that a ‘noise hotline’ should be set up which would allow people in the area to report any complaints during events.
Monk Park Farm emphasised this is an ongoing project and if they come across something they haven’t thought of, they will improve as they go.
The farm will continue hosting their usual, exciting events in the future, including pig snuggling over the October half term.
