Team wanting to host summer street party in Shoreditch defends plans after objections from local businesses

Photograph: Ruairi Drayne / Flickr

A team hoping to throw a summer street party in Shoreditch said there have been no problems running a similar event nearby in over a decade.

Techno event organiser Krankbrother has asked for a licence for a 1,500-person event on Clifton Street for one Saturday a year.

Director Kieran Clancy told the council’s licensing committee he thinks there is some confusion among objectors, who claimed the event would affect access to their properties, because the application is for a new area of the street.

He said the company had mailshotted neighbours and picked a stretch of road that is predominantly used by businesses.

His team reviewed the area to double-check the potential impact of the event, which is aimed at the over-25s.

He said: “We’ve been doing events at other end Clifton Street for some years now.”

In that time, he explained there have been no representations from the police or ambulance service.

Lawyer Philip Kratz, representing five local businesses, including three working in hospitality, said “noise nuisance” from a sound system is a concern.

A road closure would mean “safe, convenient access to and from a client’s premises is impeded”, he added.

He also argued that the party could have a “knock-on effect on crime and disorder” because of the number of people on the street.

Krnakbrother’s event and safety manager, Mick Bowles, said: “I think we have a pretty well-run set-up, with little disruption.”

He told the committee that partygoers have their IDs checked and bags searched, with pat-downs if necessary to prevent glass bottles, drugs or weapons getting in.

Clancy said there are staggered entry times so “we don’t have an issue where people arrive en masse”.

He said guests start leaving at about 7pm and “disperse very quickly, with not everyone leaving at the end”.

Kratz told the hearing a 14-year-old  girl “had no trouble” buying an event ticket online.

Bowles said that even if the girl bought a ticket, “she hasn’t satisfied the ID checks that are required in order to actually enter the venue”.

A decision is expected in the coming days.