Residents sound festival blue notes

A MAJOR review of the Colne Rhythm and Blues Festival is to be carried out after council bosses revealed community safety was "a major worry."

The internationally-renowned event, which has been held for the last 14 years and attracts between 60,000 and 70,000 people, has been criticised by residents and councillors.

They complained that noise, anti-social behaviour and litter was spiralling out of control.

Some residents fear the festival has grown too big for Colne. But business leaders say the festival is vital to the local economy, providing more than a month's profit in just one weekend.

Councillors are to set up a working group to review the effect of the festival on the town and to decide on its future. It will be discussed at a meeting of the Colne and District Committee next Thursday.

Pendle Council's executive director of services John Kirk said: "Attendance has grown and grown and we need to think about some measures to control aspects, such as under-age drinking.

"There haven't been any complaints about the main festival but we need to look at some of the more fringe events.

"One possibility is moving the youth festival away from the main event."

Earlier this year Pendle council was slammed by the government ombudsman which decided in favour of residents over the amount of noise coming from the festival.

It was ordered to pay more than £1,000 to resident Jan Hubbard for failing to respond to her concerns about the noise at the 2001 festival, the inconvenience she was caused by having to move out for the weekend and the further expense when she paid to have the levels monitored.