THE organisers of last year’s GemFest at Howle Hill have set their sights on a new location for this year.

However, a hearing to decide whether the small music festival can go ahead at Old Castle Court Farm at Crucorney near Pandy, was cut short after a couple of minutes when the applicant asked to resubmit their plans.

The GemFest organisers had applied for an event notice to stage a music festival, expected to draw some 200 to 300 people, where there would also be camping.

GemFest has been staged twice in Herefordshire and no issues reported to the local police or council, which was granted a temporary event notice and a premises licence last year, despite local opposition.

Sam Southan, one of four organisers, applied to stage the festival from Friday, June 13 to Sunday, June 15 this year with live music and alcohol and sales until 4am on the Saturday and Sunday mornings, though all activities would have finished at midnight.

Monmouthshire County Council’s environmental health department objected as it said no site plan had been provided and it was concerned about potential noise with houses within 500 metres of the field.

Environmental health officer Huw Owen also said no information on noise levels, mitigations or the intended music type had been provided.

His objection said there is ‘clearly the potential for disturbance from music during late night hours and a breach of licensing objective the prevention of public nuisance’.

When council licensing officer Linda O’Gorman asked Mr Southan, who attended the meeting remotely with fellow organiser Sam Morgan, if he was happy to go ahead without legal representation, he asked for the chance to resubmit the application.

Mr Southan said: “Previously in Herefordshire they’ve always been more casual meetings. I think we’ve misunderstood how formal this would be,” and apologised for the confusion.