Red tape’ threatens Cobo’s balcony gigs

Cobo Bay general manager Darryl Readings fears that the music has been stopped. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 0971894)

A POPULAR live music event is being threatened by red tape.
Cobo Bay Hotel’s balcony gigs look like being stopped because police are refusing to close the road. And hotelier David Nussbaumer says he faces a £1,000 bill under new liquor licensing regulations.
It is ‘bureaucracy gone mad’, said Mr Nussbaumer, who wants a short section of coast road closed while bands play on the balcony and has been told he will now have to apply for an alfresco licence.
He has previously applied for a permit, but has been told that is no longer enough. A local law firm advised him that each alfresco application would cost more than £1,000, with no guarantee it would succeed. (from thisisguernsey)

Typical States bureaucracy... no wonder hoteliers give up trying to give the Islanders something to enjoy..

Typical,mean,smallminded thinking.

Do they just employ someone to think up these silly things....

Deputy of Unnecessary Regulations

I agree with the last line from GD

Typical States bureaucracy... no wonder hoteliers give up trying to give the Islanders something to enjoy..

Why on earth should a road be closed just because some idiots want to ponce about on a balcony ?

Thankfully they are not catering for whinging old english blokes who pop over every now and then to play chess and hate to think that anybody else could enjoy something they like.
This gov is determined to stamp out anything that could attract tourists or entertain the plebs.

kingcolemk wrote:Why on earth should a road be closed just because some idiots want to ponce about on a balcony ?

Why on earth should they shut the sea front because 20,000 people want to celebrate Liberation day? Because it's peoples choice. Just because you wouldn't go to Rockmount doesn't mean hundreds of others should lose out.
live and let live

The Rockmount used to be my favourite Guernsey watering hole.

ted the head wrote:

kingcolemk wrote:Why on earth should a road be closed just because some idiots want to ponce about on a balcony ?

Why on earth should they shut the sea front because 20,000 people want to celebrate Liberation day? Because it's peoples choice. Just because you wouldn't go to Rockmount doesn't mean hundreds of others should lose out.
live and let live

Poor comparison Ted, 20,000 people a third of the Island against 2-300. Balcony concerts are also there for a comercial gain. Nussie' can still put them on he just doesn't want to cough up an extra grand. In the past who paid for the road closure, i.e. admin, signs etc. There should be a cost levied against the promoter of a commercial venture.

I hate to say this - but I agree with Plimmerton

Plimmerton

I think you'll find that a lot more than 2-300 go to this event. The inconvenience of the diversion is minimal, it's yet another pathetic decision taken by those in charge who quite frankly are a bunch of see you next Tuesdays.

If he just paid the fee there would not be a problem .
there is so much more into this .for a start if it went ahead with out a license and someone got run over it would be there own fault as the road was not legally close
And this is where it need to go to court for a LEGAL commitment
so if this tight assed hotelier paid up all would be ok
He was also against paying folks the minimum wage as he thought 2/6 an hour was plenty for the guest workers .
If he wants this concert to go ahead for the good of the island pay the fee others have to pay their way in life
For the record i think it is a great way to entertain folks and long may it continue .

Hands in the air.
Fair point Mr Plimmerton. What i was trying to say, is it a good venue and can be held with minimal disruption, Plus a lot of people look forward to it. As for the politics of it, it's up to the them to sort out. If as stated they are against minimum wage and conditions, well I for one will not support them in any way.

i have been trying to find the report on this .

A third of the population don't go to the hill climb but I bet they don't pay a grand! Plus the diversion(and signs) are greater.

The hill climb is not a business venture.

Spot on! he is making money ..a lot of it by having his floor space tripled.
At one time for free.now he has to pay ,perhaps they should ask for back rent!

The music thingo makes a lot of money for Mr Naussbaumer in booze/bar meals from the Rockmount/Cobo Bay Hotels - so he can afford to pay up and look big!!!! (I am no kill-joy - but it is such a pain to be re-directed around the houses to get to Grandes Rocques (especially if one has forgotten that the event is taking place)

Why not charge 50 pence per person entry?

technophobe wrote:Plimmerton

I think you'll find that a lot more than 2-300 go to this event. The inconvenience of the diversion is minimal, it's yet another pathetic decision taken by those in charge who quite frankly are a bunch of see you next Tuesdays.

Okay if 5-800 go to the event it is still not a third of the Islands population. Why did the event start in the first place? was it a) to give extra outdoor functions for the populace or b) to make money or c) a bit of both.

We live on a small island so it is a bit of a pain cutting inland to avoid it but live and let live I can hack that but if Nussie is the main eaner on this why should he make money and not pay the going rate.

plimmerton811 wrote:We live on a small island so it is a bit of a pain cutting inland to avoid it.

Is 50mts extra road really that much of a nuisance ?

Plimmerto Wrote-"We live on a small island so it is a bit of a pain cutting inland to avoid it but live and let live I can hack that but if Nussie is the main eaner on this why should he make money and not pay the going rate."

More to the point is,as I mentioned before.Nussbaumer is being asked to pay 10 or 20 times the going rate!

So you reckon the 'going rate' to get a road closed in Guernsey is £50 !

What do you base that on?

The Gimp wrote:

plimmerton811 wrote:We live on a small island so it is a bit of a pain cutting inland to avoid it.

Is 50mts extra road really that much of a nuisance ?

Gimp, I'm all for discussion but if you are to use distance as an arguement at least get it near to the correct distance, and inconvenience/nuisance means more than distance. The coast road is straight with just the road humps outside the Rock' and the filter systems. In land there are a load of junctions and narrower roads.

what if the entire operation was not for profit to the proprietor. A cut to a charity, the rest to the bands playing?

ffs it's a sht bit of road that ruins guernsey's enjoyment of the coast.

i'd rather some bollocks covers than tw@s in cars

If it were not for profit then the states dept' should come on board and give favourable rates.

As for the enjoyment, some view of the coast is better than no view of the coast as for your last sentence, get the giste even if I do not understand what you are on about.