Agenda item

The Director of Planning and Building Control provided the Committee with the details of the application for a 14-Day Occasional Outdoor Entertainments Licence for St Annes Cathedral Car Park (North side), based on the Council’s standard conditions to provide outdoor musical entertainment, primarily for use during Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann, 2-9 August 2026.

The proposed hours for entertainment were Monday to Sunday, 11.30am to 12:00am, on all eight nights of the Fleadh Cheoil.

The Committee was reminded that St Anne’s Cathedral was within the road closure pedestrianised area for the Fleadh Cheoil.  The entertainments licence applied for was to facilitate the provision of outdoor entertainment to the North side of St Anne’s Cathedral site, the location of the food and drink market. The applicant wished to host entertainment in this outdoor area in line with the Fleadh Cheoil’s traditional music entertainment offering.

            The Committee was reminded that the following conditions were attached to Outdoor Entertainments Licences:

·       Maximum numbers would be agreed at the discretion of the Building Control service and would vary depending on the individual entertainment proposals.

·       Prior to entertainment taking place, the licensee was required to demonstrate evidence of early consultation with the Building Control service and have in place a robust system for dealing with complaints. This was to be agreed in advance.

·       Should an application to provide entertainment beyond 11.00 pm be granted and the Council then received a significant number of complaints regarding noise or the complaint was of such significant impact, authority was granted to the Director of Planning and Building Control, in consultation with the City Solicitor, to reduce the finishing time for any subsequent nights of the event, in which case the promoter would be required to make contingency arrangements.

The Committee was advised that public notice of the application had been placed in the newspaper, and no representations had been received.

The Director advised the Committee that the police had been consulted in relation to the application, however, a response had not yet been received. Should Members be minded to approve the Grant of the Outdoor Entertainments licence, it should be subject to a satisfactory response from the PSNI on the matter.

            Officers had engaged with the event organisers and colleagues in the Fleadh events team in relation to the proposed use of the space and would participate in pre-event meetings.  An event management plan had been received.

The applicant proposed to provide non-amplified musical entertainment within the outdoor area in the form of traditional music live bands during the Fleadh. As entertainment was proposed to be provided beyond the standard finishing time for outdoor musical entertainment to 12:00 am, if granted, a special condition would be added to the licence relating to the sole provision of non-amplified musical entertainment.

The Committee agreed to approve the application for the grant of the 14-Day Occasional Outdoor Entertainments Licence, subject to any special conditions considered necessary by officers and to all technical requirements being met, and to extend the hours of entertainment to 12:00am and agree that musical entertainment be permitted to take place to 12:00am from 2nd – 9th August, 2026, inclusive.