Live music venues under threat in Aberdeen

Sign the petition to support Aberdeen venues and call on the City Council to adopt the Agent of Change principle.

The owners of two of Aberdeen music venues, Downstairs and Krakatoa, have written to the City Council to ask for protection under the ‘Agent of Change principle’ of the city’s live music venues.

Last week the 150-capacity Downstairs, located underneath the Malt Mill on Holburn Street, was issued with a noise-abatement notice by Aberdeen City Council following a complaint by a local resident. The council found that the sound escaping the venue was too loud and issued Downstairs with the notice for causing a “statutory nuisance”. The venue must also install soundproofing measures at its own cost.

“The resident has complained, and sadly the law says that it’s our problem, not theirs,” Gav Bassett, co-manager of the venue, told The Press and Journal. “It’s going to cost us at least two weeks of trade, which in January is not ideal.”

As a consequence, and following a number of similar orders issued by the council, Bassett and co-manager David McGhie and 200-capacity Krakatoa’s Craig Adams are petitioning Aberdeen City Council and its planning and environmental health departments to implement Agent of Change at a local level. This would protect venues from complaints coming from residents of flats and houses that were built nearby after the venue was established.

Please sign and share the petition supporting the venues and the call for the Agent of Change principle to be implemented.