If we lose London’s Moth Club, it poses “existential threat” to all music venues says MVT

Music Venue Trust have issued a statement on the future of London’s Moth Club, saying its potential closure poses an “existential threat” to all grassroots venues.

• READ MORE: UK grassroots venues suffering from “the complete collapse of touring” – here’s how you can help

The venue came under threat last September, when owners took to social media and called on local residents and fans to reach out to the borough’s planning department to contest a proposal for a new block of flats.

They were later hit with two separate planning applications for flats on Morning Road, next to MOTH Club, which were submitted to Hackney Council.

A petition to oppose the planning applications went on to receive more than 25,000 signatures, with owners urging people in posts shared earlier this month to “keep the pressure on, sign and share the petition and write to the council”.

Now, Music Venue Trust have issued a statement on the venue’s future, writing that they are facing an “existential threat” over Hackney Council denying the venue a public planning hearing, despite more than 25,000 objecting to the plans in the aforementioned petition.

“The Council has sidelined the Agent of Change principle, ignored expert evidence, and withheld a key acoustic report from an FOI request while relying on assessments that independent specialists describe as “useless”,” they continue.

“For almost a year, MOTH Club and MVT have struggled to achieve meaningful engagement from planning officers, even after raising serious concerns about flawed reports, contradictory information, and failures in the consultation process.

“If Hackney side-steps national policy here, it sets a catastrophic precedent: any grassroots venue in the UK could be placed in the same position by developers who choose not to mitigate noise. This isn’t just a MOTH Club issue. It’s a test of whether planning protections for cultural spaces have any real weight.”

It comes after an announcement of new government plans back in July, which are supposed to give venues that are subject to noise complaints by nearby residential developments “greater protection”.

The new measures, which were published earlier this week under the national licensing policy framework, mean that developers would have to take responsibility for soundproofing flats and apartments near existing pubs or music venues.

The new protection will be ushered in under the “agent of change principle”, as mentioned by MVT, with the Department for Business and Trade saying it will consider further options to support established venues under the new framework.

The need for new regulations follows a series of high-profile cases in recent years, including Night & Day Cafe in Manchester, which was issued a noise abatement notice by Manchester City Council in November 2021 due to a noise complaint from a resident who had moved to Manchester during lockdown.

The nearly three-year-long row ended with the venue being told to impose restrictions that limited noise late at night to a reasonable level.

New developments being opened near venues have been a cause for concern for owners faced with the risk of noise complaints from tenants.

It comes during a period where the UK music scene continues to face the “complete collapse” of touring, with huge areas going without live music, one venue closing every two weeks, and the uphill struggle for artists to afford to exist, let alone play live.

Plans for a new office block next to the Prince Albert pub in Brighton were approved on appeal in January, after being refused in November 2023. More than 1200 people objected to the planning application, and more than 22,000 have since signed a petition objecting to the plans.

Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, said that the venue faced a “slow death” if planning permission for a new development is allowed to go ahead.

The new framework is especially crucial for venues at this time, after 2023 proved to be “disastrous” and the worst year on record, with 125 grassroots music venues shutting their doors. At the beginning of the year, it was also reported that 70.6 per cent of independent UK acts have never toured, while 84 per cent of unsigned artists simply can’t afford to.

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