THE group behind plans to create a permanent festival site have been given the backing of the Duke of Bedford.
There has been criticism from a number of Upper Sundon residents of plans put forward by Free the Spirit to host 12 festivals a year at the Sundon chalk pits.
Agents for the owners of the site, the St Francis Group, say the project would have a ‘negative impact’ on both local residents and on the fragile ecology of the land, which is a site of special scientific interest (SSSI).
But the Duke of Bedford, owner of the Woburn estate, has voiced his support for the Free the Spirit group.
The duke has known members of the group for a number of years after agreeing to let them hold organised events on his land in an attempt to counter the problem of illegal raves.
An episode of the television series ‘Country House’, which aired from 1999 to 2002, showed the Duke meeting with Glenn Jenkins of the then-named Exodus group, now part of the coalition behind the festival site plans.
He said: “I’ve dealt with Glenn for quite a while and always found him straight forward, great to get on with and good for what he says he’s going to do.
“I would have to say most of the time he is much easier to get on with than most of the various statutory bodies that he has to deal with.”
The duke said illegal raves were less frequent now than five or ten years ago, but that they were still a “fact of life”.
“It’s a question of how they can be held sensibly,” he said. “They’ve got an association of illegal drugs about them. If you could do them on a licensed basis that meets health and safety requirements it’s got to be a much safer environment.”
He understood concerns of residents in Sundon, he said, emphasising the group would need to get local people on side and show how they would deal with issues such as noise and traffic.
A licensed rave held on the Woburn estate in October had gone off without any problems, the duke said.
“They had a licence for 500 people. My biggest concern was that they would go outside that number but they were spot on.”