Wednesday 9th April
Rome > London > Cardiff
Five hours sleep and then into a taxi to make Ciampino Airport in Rome for a flight to London Gatwick, and then a train home. Over compensating, I get to Ciampino almost three hours before my flight leaves, but better safe than sorry. It gives me time to grab some breakfast, write my blog updates to post up later, and fire some emails into work before the gang get in.
Work is always strange for us and right now is no exception. One of our clients, a Cardiff live venue The Point, has been served with a noise abatement order and is under threat of closure. It's in an area of mixed use buildings - historically these have mostly been offices or retail - but more recently there's been an increase in residential take up, in particular old loft spaces - once just used for storage or not used at all but now being turned into homes. These lofts are high up off the ground - above the height of the roof of The Point, which is a converted church - designed and once used for people to sing their hymns to resonate upwards towards God, who is probably situated just slightly higher than the lofts - and these two setups don't make sensible neighbours.
Now, let's see, but if a building, a listing-building in fact, has been around for a couple of hundred years; and operating as a live music venue for the past six or seven; then it seems common sense to me that any new developments within the area need to allow for its presence. I'd suggest that soundproofing of new houses and flats would be de rigeur (including, perhaps, money given to the venue by developers to help the venue soundproof accordingly as they open up new areas previously unused by people - like lofts, for example, so the venue can soundproof areas it didn't need too previously). That way, development can take place and both can co-exist.
That hasn't happened. If you go down to look at the planning application for these apartments, the environmental team actually recommended that some sound proofing work was done, but this was appealed by the developers and Cardiff Council's planners agreed it wasn't necessary. These are the same planners whose city is growing as a result of businesses such as The Point making areas attractive to potential new residents and developers (The Point is situated in a once very poor area of Cardiff, which, in the past decade, has undergone extensive redevelopment. The Point is also the city's only 500 capacity live music venue. It's also not just a shell of a building with a PA in - it's a gorgeous converted church - which makes it something extra special).
With a court date announced for the hearing, the news of this noise abatement - which we've known about for almost six months - has gone public. To manage the expected outcry, we set up an online petition on Thursday, and checking it last night it's already had 3,000 signatures. I expect thousands more as the news gets out. A physical petition has already notched up 1,000 signatures in just a few days.
Usually, when something calls for a petition, you have two groups of people arguing the whys and wherefores of an issue. In this instance, just the single complainant, someone who moved into a flat next door to a 500 capacity live music venue, is the only person who somehow things this complaint makes sense. The Council are blindly following the law when, in this case, the law, and the Council, is clearly an ass.
What should happen here, is that Cardiff Council step in and stop this going to court to save the waste of money it will be. They should recognise that they were at fault in ignoring the original advice and fix things. The complainant should agree to having soundproofing work carried out on their flat and the Council should pay for it. If they were sold the flat under any false pretence (It is quite possible they had no idea a venue was there if they bought without viewing and if the seller omitted to tell them) then they should be compensated by the sellers so they can move and/or whilst work is carried out. The Council should pay for soundproofing work on the venue relating to any areas causing concern by the new builds in the area. All future builds in similar areas should come with a proviso that soundproofing work is carried out on both the new build and the existing business, or, more simply, they should listen to their environmental team and appoint a Music Steering Committee to help advise on matters relating to music. This isn't as simple as one neighbour complaining about another. If The Point goes, it rips apart the live music scene in Cardiff and offers nowhere of mid-size for national and international bands to play in the city. It seems new bars and clubs which promote binge drinking and excess with no live entertainment have spent the best part of five years opening at will in the capital - to the extent that Cardiff now closes the roads in order to let people stagger out drunk / fight / be sick and collapse, rather than shut the clubs down and push people towards other forms of entertainment other than pure drinking. Entertainment like live music - where drinking may form part of the night, rather than the be-all and end-all.
No doubt about it, Cardiff Council have got it arse about tit. That seems plainly obvious to everyone except certain people in charge. Traveling about the UK I'm ashamed when I meet people whose view of Cardiff is St Mary's Street on a Saturday night; they are appalled by what goes on and are the first to comment that when a TV crew of newspaper are running a story on binge drinking, it's Cardiff that they visit. I cannot defend the place, as I feel exactly the same.
The situation concerning The Point is indicative of this poor management of the Welsh capital, but I think we have hit the tipping point - a wind of change will occur - and about time too.
