The Licensing Authority has reached a decision with regard to numbers attending the 2024 Lytham Festival.
The decision says: ‘The balance that we strike is to grant the increase in capacity applied for so far as it relates to Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, but not for any other day comprised in a festival. We consider that the present size of the festival represents the limit of the adverse impact that the local community should have to accept on days when many need to get home from work and prepare to work the following day. The mitigations that the applicants have put in place are welcome and generally effective. But mitigations can only go so far to lessen the impact of a very substantial event on a relatively small community.
That is why an increase to 25,000 for each night, would in our judgment, be a step too far. We hope that our decision will ensure that residents are not further disrupted or inconvenienced any more than already experienced on week nights.’
‘Our decision is therefore: To grant the licence as applied for, subject to conditions which limit the maximum attendance at each night of the festival to 19,999 except on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.’
Meanwhile Lytham Festival will benefit from larger grounds and more car parking next year, while the organisers plan to trial a park and ride service to help reduce traffic pressure.
On Tuesday 5 December 2023 evening, the Fylde Council Executive Committee considered a request from Lytham Festival organisers to increase the footprint of its operational and car parking areas to relieve pressure on the town centre car parks and streets.
The request also included a new agreement to grant additional car parking at land adjacent to Fairhaven Road car park for a one-year trial, to determine if park and ride facilities would further help tackle congestion in Lytham town centre and ease people’s exit from the site after the performances.
In making the decision to allow the increased footprint, Councillor Karen Buckley, Fylde Council Leader commented: “The most common concerns raised about Lytham Festival from residents are in relation to traffic because of the volume of visitors driving to the event. Whilst extra buses and trains are scheduled during the 5-day event, these will only go so far in persuading people to leave their cars at home. Further measures have been identified to provide more parking and to pilot a park and ride from St Anne’s by making land available next to the Fairhaven Road car park which was recently used as overflow parking during the Kite Festival.”
