Festival organisers have been refused permission to hold an event this weekend after a "huge amount" of complaints from residents.

A day festival was scheduled to take place at Springfield Farm, near Radlett, on Sunday.

But St Albans District Council's environmental health team has pulled the plug on the plans.

Aaron Wallace, of Nova, had been seeking permission to allow live music and the sale of alcohol from 10am to 11pm on Sunday August 15 at the farm off Old Parkbury Lane in Colney Street.

Springfield Farm already has a premises licence, but the application would have allowed an event to begin an hour earlier and potentially with fewer conditions – but with a capacity of 499.

However, the council has refused permission and said that they do not believe the organiser can hold the event while meeting licensing conditions.

The council said it had received in the region of 28 complaints from 28 different households in regards to loud music and intrusive bass during the summer, which were allowed to go ahead under the farm’s current events licence.

The authority raised concerns about the impact for local residents if a festival was allowed to happen with fewer restrictions in place.

David Webb, environmental protection manager, told the council’s licensing sub-committee: "Many of the events that have taken place were held under the licence and these included specific noise conditions. 

"Unfortunately because of the temporary event notice there were no specific noise conditions for this event and therefore we are concerned that it will cause significant impact on residents."

Mr Webb added last week they received a "huge amount of complaints" and witnessed noise issues from monitoring points on site, and there were some concerns about anti-social behaviour.

He added: "As such, we feel without further mitigation in place Springfield Farm is an unsuitable location for this type of event, in particular Nova Fest.

"I’d like to add, it’s not just the noise, it’s also the duration and frequency of events that have been happening. Obviously this event is due to take place throughout the day, on a Sunday, and therefore we feel it’s likely to cause noise issues for residents."

The sub-committee refused permission for the event to take place, and issued a counter notice.

Appeals must be submitted at least five working days before the event, so in this case the applicant is not able to appeal the decision.