THE Royal Highland Centre, home of the Royal Highland Show has been urged to be a "better neighbour" after a two-day rave at the organisation's Ingliston venue sparked a high volume of complaints.
More than 80 music acts performed at the site as part of Terminal V over the weekend, but an investigation is now underway after noise complaints – some from residents living several miles away – were received by the city council and local MSPs.
A number took to social media, with one resident describing the experience, which went on for almost 12 hours each day, as "brutal", while another resident thought the music was so loud it was coming from her daughter’s bedroom.
Another said: “If it’s loud enough be annoying miles away, it must be deafening at Ingliston."
READ MORE: Music festival donates thousands to tackling food poverty in Edinburgh
Local MSP and LibDem leader Alex Cole Hamilton said he had received a number of complaints.
He said: “I could hear the event in Ingliston from my house and I also have had a number of residents in touch about the noise.
"It's clear that households are facing significant disruption. I will be reaching out to event holders and the council to raise these concerns and ask them to ensure that appropriate standards are maintained."
A spokesperson for Edinburgh City Council said: “We have been made aware of complaints which we are assessing.”
One resident who lives around four miles from the venue described the weekend as "horrendous" adding: "It wasn’t just the noise level, it’s the fact it went on for nearly 12 hours each day. The showground owners need to consider the impact these events have on people and be a better neighbour."
READ MORE: The Scottish women artists you should be supporting this spring
A spokesperson for the Royal Highland Centre said: “Being a good neighbour is really important to the team at Royal Highland Centre.
“We have a carefully considered noise management plan in place, which we recently presented at a local forum in March and which was adhered to through this Terminal V weekend.
“The council’s environmental health team were invited to join us on site and took measurements across the weekend, and on Saturday morning we actually had a group of local residents visit the site to tour the PA system and meet the noise teams to look at our processes.
“We are aware that although there were no breaches to the policy, the wind direction and strength did present challenges and that the event was audible further away than usual. There were very few comments or complaints about that, but we made sure to respond to all of these as quickly as possible.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here