The plan will help save London’s increasingly endangered music venues
In a new plan called London’s Grassroots Music Venues Rescue Plan the Mayor of London’s Music Venue Taskforce has outlined a number of ideas to help secure the future of London’s music venues. Amongst the ideas there is the option of a “night time economy champion” which would be a position similar to that of a Night Mayor. The idea already exists in many European cities and is especially commonplace in the Netherlands where a night time ambassador builds relationships with venues, police and local authorities to deal with the kinds of problems that can arise from clubs and venues.
The documents also proposes Agent Of Change principles which would be similar to ideas already in place in Australia and Canada. The idea is that developers would have to liaise with venues to discuss noise issues and mitigate on ways to prevent the issues becoming a problem before they happen. This could include extra security measures or further soundproofing.
According to the report London has lost 35 per cent of its grassroots music venues since 2006 with the number of venues providing a platform new artists has plummeting from 136 to 88. Recent casualties including Vibe Bar, Madame Jojo’s and The Joiners could all have been saved if the plans had been implemented earlier. In the near future the mayor will apparently issue a jargon-free planning guide and will be setting up a Music Development Board to carry out the plans and take over from the existing Music Venue Taskforce.
(Via: FACT)