A festival site and wedding venue on the edge of St Albans will be allowed to increase its capacity.

Currently, Springfield Farm has to restrict the number of guests to festivals, weddings and other events at its Colney Heath site to 1000.

That restriction on numbers has been in place since August last year, when the owners of the venue applied to reduce the capacity limit on the licence.

But now, officers at St Albans City and District Council have agreed to a further request to remove that restriction – enabling the capacity limit to return to 4999.

Environmental health officers had initially objected to the application to remove the limit on guest numbers.

They had highlighted 34 noise complaints received in June last year, when the site hosted the Tearout festival.

They said they had also received complaints about late-night noise – after 11pm – in July, August and September.

But they withdrew their objection in advance of the scheduled meeting of the council’s licensing sub-committee on Tuesday (March 10).

The application to remove the restriction on capacity was approved by council officers – with a number of conditions to limit noise from the site.

As part of those conditions, sound levels at pre-agreed locations will have to be monitored and recorded every hour during events with entertainment. And the volume will be reduced if it exceeds agreed levels.

Those levels dictate that at a distance of one metre from ‘sensitive’ premises, which may include homes, music should not be more than 15dB above background levels and noise should be no more than 3dB above.

In addition, the conditions state that no live or recorded music should be audible at ‘sensitive’ premises after 11pm.

Currently Springfield Farm is licensed to be open to the public between 8am and 1am – and to serve alcohol between 11am and midnight. Live music, recorded music and films can be played between midday and midnight.

Since August, until now, any event with more than 1000 attendees would have required its own licence.

No members of the public responded to ‘public notices’ published as part of the application process.