Doubts have been cast over July’s 1980s music festival near Perth after organisers failed to cut through the red tape necessary to secure a licence for the event.
The Rewind Festival at Scone Palace will boast a dream line-up for lovers of 80s music including Bananarama, Rick Astley and The Human League.
However, Perth and Kinross licensing committee, expecting to rubber stamp a public entertainment licence for the event on Thursday, heard written plans are still not in place for a number of key elements.
NHS Tayside, Tayside Police, the Scottish Ambulance Service and local council officials all told the committee they had concerns about planning and management of the event, which could attract 20,000 people.
Organiser David Heartfield of the Rival Organisation said the outstanding matters are mere “fine tuning” and there is no threat to the festival.
Council food and health safety manager Jim Dixon said, “Although different agencies are getting information, it is insufficient in terms of detail.
“Each agency is saying they are hearing things they want to hear but not seeing it in black and white.
“We don’t work on the basis that you’re going to do things, we need to know how you’re going to do those things.”
One issue is the removal of waste from the site, which has been promised but for which there is no contractor in place. Lack of contingency for emergency water supplies was also flagged.
Mr Heartfield said, “We’ve been doing these events for 25 years with highly skilled contractors.
“There are three-and-a-half months to run until the event and we are in a perfectly normal position we’d expect to be in.
“We hold licences in 25 places around the country. We’re on draft five of the plan at the moment and… to say everything is not fine tuned is fair comment.
“To be at a situation where you are considering not granting the licence because you don’t know which contractor is dumping the waste and to suggest we’ve not supplied that information is extraordinary.”
The council was not the only party left unsatisfied by arrangements. Douglas Greer of NHS Tayside said there had been fears expressed by accident and emergency consultants over the medical plan and the level of ambulance cover and urged further discussion with public health.
Inspector Paddy Buckley-Jones of Tayside Police said stewarding levels are not final and questioned the stated drugs policy, that those caught with “small quantities” of illicit substances would not be reported to police.
The committee opted to defer its decision to June 2, eight weeks before the festival. Members stressed that outstanding matters be dealt with in the next six weeks.
Committee convener Peter Mulheron said, “Your event sounds really exciting and we want it here but you must interface with officers and all agencies and once you’ve ticked all the boxes, we’ll be quite happy.”