Two principal complainants against the alleged ‘noise nuisance’ at Night and Day Café are moving out after being ‘put off Manchester’ by the row.
Yet the pair have revealed to MM that if they were to move back to Manchester in the near future they would seek to move next to a MUSIC VENUE again – to prove that people should be able to live near them noise free.
The Northern Quarter venue is due to have its licence reviewed at a committee hearing on September 4 after attending a compulsory review meeting in July.
This was to discuss whether they have been breaching the terms of their noise abatement notice and venue licence.
But for some residents ‘enough is enough’ – with two of the key complainants stating that they now feel they must ‘get away from Manchester’.
The neighbours told MM: “I’m very, very upset and angry that we are moving.
“The noise nuisance has still continued and the council has done everything they can in the sense of the licence review and we have the court case in October.
“But it’s all the stress, my partner’s not very well I’m under counselling and it’s very stressful so we have decided to move from the area.
“Our tenancy isn’t up until January so our land lord will probably be taking us to court, but it (the noise) is that bad it’s unbearable.”
The pair are moving to Southport to live with friends and one of them will have to commute daily back to Manchester for work.
“The whole thing has just put me off Manchester as a whole, though we may choose to move back here in the future,” he said.
“To put it very bluntly, I would live next to a music venue. Why shouldn’t I live next to a music venue?
“Every bar and club has a licence and should work within that in terms of noise volume so there should be no problem for me to live next door to one.”
The Night and Day Cafe was slapped with a noise abatement notice in January and this sparked a petition to try and fight the notice, which almost 75,000 people signed.
Last month audio levels had hit a low for the first time since the abatement notice but residents believe that the noise over the last few weeks has become as bad as ever.
“The noise has gone back up and we had to have the council back out again, it’s like being back at square one,” said residents.
“Other residents have come forward in our building and made representation against Night and Day.
A court hearing is scheduled for October where the popular music venue will argue against the placing of the notice, as well as the committee hearing in September.
The neighbours, who will attend both hearings and believe there is a ‘50/50’ the committee hearing will be successful, think the café has a lot to answer for.
“My message to Night and Day is basically that they need to buck up your ideas,” they said.
“They think they are above the council and above the law, which they are not.
“If they think it’s over it’s not over from a long shot even though we are moving out because the council are still taking them to licence review.
“Even if we move out someone else might move in and they could suffer the noise nuisance as well.
“We know a resident who has lived their 14 years who has made a representation in support of the council and even had them out to his house.”
Manchester City Council decided to review the iconic venue’s licence after receiving complaints from the resident as well as other neighbours from Tibb Street and Dale Street over the past eight years.
And it is an issue that the residents feel can only be solved by the venue itself.
“They have an issue and it’s not going to get better it is only going to get worse for the venue,” they added.
“It’s an issue that has been spanning eight years and all I can say to them is there the only ones that can stop this from happening.
“We’re very disappointed with Night and Day.”
When asked to comment, Night and Day promoter Gareth Butterworth said: “In terms of the noise we have had professional sound engineers for quite some time now making sure the sound is of an acceptable level depending on the gig.
“With regards to people moving out of the area we can’t comment on where people want to live and as far as the venue is concerned we are just going about our business.”
“And with regards to the committee hearing we have not heard anything different apart from the September hearing.”
The residents, who have received death threats due to their opposition to the venue, also believe that their rented property was miss sold to them by their landlord – and could be making a counter-claim should they be taken to court.
Image courtesy of Duncan Hill, with thanks.
