Plans which could DOUBLE number of big music concerts at Headingley Stadium in Leeds

The rugby pitch, along with surrounding stands at the Emerald Headingley Stadium currently have permission to hold two events per year for up to 9,999 people.

However, a fresh application has been submitted to licensing chiefs at Leeds City Council asking to increase this to four events per year, with no more than 19,999 spectators at each event.

One letter to the council from a concerned resident claimed the plans could make residents’ lives ‘sheer hell’, but the applicants claim noise and light disturbance would be kept to a minimum.

The current permission was granted in August 2019, and helped facilitate the Proms on the Pitch event the following month.

It grants the ground permission to hold one event per year, either on a Friday or Saturday between noon and 11pm, and then one event either a Saturday or a Sunday between 11am and 6pm. The Friday/Saturday events allow for up to 9,999 spectators while the daytime Saturday/Sunday event may involve up to 4,999.

The new application asks for the capacity to increase to ‘up to 19,999 spectators’ for all four events, over two weekends each year. It added the timings would remain the same, suggesting there could be a maximum of two lots of evening and daytime events on consecutive days, although this is not made explicitly clear in the application.

The application states: “We wish to vary the licence to enable live music events to be hosted over two weekends each year and increase the number of spectators allowed in the ground. We are applying for a maximum of four live outdoor music events attracting no more than 19,999 spectators at each event.

“There is no change in the layout of the premises. There is no increase in the hours that we wish to operate.”

It added: “We are mindful of residents and will adopt a policy consistent with existing procedures to minimise noise and light disruption. Floodlights will be turned off by 11pm and no bottle bins or waste will be collected until the next day.

“We are a family oriented business and do not provide entertainment of a sexual or adult nature.”

The application has attracted several letters of complaint from local residents, one of which read: “The recently rebuilt Headingley Stadium is in the process of applying for at least four weekend events of so-called entertainment that usually involves heavy traffic, unreasonably loud noise of what usually appears to pass as music… urination in streets and pavements, rubbish strewn everywhere, just to mention some of the problems.

“Making money and benefiting the city’s economy, at the expense of making local residents’ life sheer hell is not always the best option.”

Leeds City Council’s licensing sub-committee is set to meet on Tuesday, March 17 to discuss the plans.