West Mersea shipyard festival plans resubmitted after refusal

Businessman Nick Moffat is looking to start up a food, drink and music festival at the Victory Moorings yard, in Coast Road.

An annual fun fair is already held at the site and has entertained residents and visitors for more than 30 years.

Musical festivals were also successfully held in West Mersea in 2017 and 2018.

An application for a temporary food and drink festival on the land was submitted last July but council bosses ruled against it, advising a full planning application should be made.

Thrown out - Colchester Council rejected previous festival plans (Image: Newsquest)

Mr Moffat has now filed fresh plans which suggest the festival will be held over three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, in the autumn before the boats are laid up.

The music events will be controlled by an “experienced team” of four from company Rock the Dock and hosted in temporary buildings with some necessary parking and access for emergency vehicles.

There would also be “adequate” and “clean” temporary toilets and changing areas brought in.

Plans say the event, like previous funfairs and music events, would boost the economy of local hospitality venues, hotels, restaurants, pubs and other food and drink outlets.

Picturesque - the festival is proposed for West Mersea (Image: Newsquest)

Despite no objections to the new plans as of yet, residents previously raised concerns over the impact of the proposed festival.

One wrote: “This is primarily a residential area and no proposals have been made that would mitigate the impact on residential amenity.

“The boatyard includes a car park, the use which may not be available for public use during the event causing congestion elsewhere.”

They claimed provision for events and festivals already exists on the island.

Another objector echoed the concerns about a perceived lack of parking during the proposed festival.

“This site offers a summer car park which is a necessity with ever-increasing visitors to the island,” they wrote.

“This site already hosts a fun fair in August which means the car park is out of action at an extremely busy time.”