Exmouth New Year’s Eve party cancelled due to spiralling ‘costs’

A New Year’s Eve party planned for Exmouth town centre has been cancelled due to ‘spiralling costs’ and ‘fear’ from local businesses.

The event, organised by two of the town’s pub landlords, was going to take place in a ‘massive town centre marquee’ on The Strand and guests were to be given a free glass of prosecco.

Now Exmouth landlords George Nightingale and Oli Bainbridge have cancelled the fledgling event due to ‘spiralling costs’ and resistance from some local businesses.

The landlords of Spoken and The Grapevine sent a letter to the Journal explaining their reasons, here are excerpts from the letter: “Hello Exmouth, It is with deep regret that we have to announce the cancellation of the New Year party that we had hoped to hold in The Strand this year.

“Despite the incredibly positive feedback from Oktoberfest held in the same location and footprint, combined with the demand for something different to celebrate New Year, a number of issues have arisen in the past week.

“All of the applications were correctly applied for, and there were no objections from the council and the affiliated authorities for the premises license that was required. Indeed, the support from Streetscene, EDDC and the town council has been superb - thank you all for your support.

“However - to the problems - the costs associated with hosting such an event spiralled, with requirements of staffing and infrastructure making it simply not viable. Most worrying though there have been official objections and representation from members of the public and resistance from business in The Strand.

“These objections need to be addressed; however, because they have already been made it must be referred to a licensing sub-committee on the December 19 - too late to risk such an event. It is unfortunate that fear from a few can affect the demand of the many; however, this is the world we now live in.

“The mistake that we have made is it to leave it too late this year to address these concerns, as the increased costs were something we were willing to risk. This is NOT a mistake that we will make for 2019.”