COUNCIL officers and rural communities claim that the law is being ‘exploited’ by some event organisers who are making residents’ lives a misery.

For just £21, event planners can give local authorities a temporary event notice (TEN) – and so far Cheshire West and Chester Council has received 990 of them in 2018, with hundreds more expected by Christmas.

The notices allow events which last up to seven days, accommodate no more than 499 people, and include at least one of the sale of alcohol or late night provision, or the provision of music or entertainment.

But at a licensing committee meeting on Tuesday, members heard that a minority of temporary events can be ‘horrendous’ for their neighbours – while CWAC has received more objections to TENs this year than ever before.

Frank Melling is a member of a rural residents group covering 25 square miles of west Cheshire’s most sparsely-populated land, which has previously met up with CWAC officers, firefighters and the police over problems with temporary events in their area.

He said: “A teddy bears’ picnic in the park is exactly what the TEN is for. If there is a circus in town and it is a week, that’s correct.

“But what we were faced with in our community was, at its peak, three events in four weeks. And those events were typically finishing at 3am and later. There was a traffic hazard, there was social disturbance and much more.

“In one extreme an event was promoted to 83,000 people. So an event with a maximum attendance of 499 people was being advertised to 83,000.

“If you are on the wrong end of this, it is a seriously nasty experience – a properly nasty experience. People who exploit it behave in a nasty way.”

Mr Melling added that the problem was not just being felt by rural communities in west Cheshire, but right across the country.

TENs were introduced as part of the Licensing Act in 2003, and the council must receive 10 working days’ notice from applicants.

A premises can have a maximum of 15 temporary events a year, on a total of 21 days a year, and only police and environmental health officers can lodge an objection.

Rejected TENs can be appealed at magistrates’ court, although a late TEN – which is submitted to the council with five days’ notice – will be thrown out if police or environmental health officers raise an objection.

Peter Willett, licensing manager at CWAC, said: “An awful lot of things that happen with TENs end up being retrospective, however there have been more objections to TENs this year than there have ever been before.

“It’s great with a late TEN because we can just say ‘go away, don’t come back’, but we can’t attach conditions – we can’t grant a TEN but say ‘you can’t use this part of a field’ and so on.”

Allison Jackson, lead officer licensing practitioner at CWAC, told councillors that the council is restricted on the rules it can set for TENs by law.

“Every application has to go through the process,” she said.

“It is quite clear that since 2003 when the act was introduced it has not been working – people are trying to exceed numbers and cut corners.”

But Mr Willett insisted that both the council and the police use their intelligence and check advertising on social media to spot any potential rogue events before they take place.

He added: “When you are the victim of a rogue TEN event it is horrendous, however they are very few and far between – we have not even one per cent that are problematic.”