IOW survives licence jitters

The Isle Of Wight Festival will go ahead in 2013 after a two day licensing committee review resulted in the event's current licence being upheld after a review was called for by local aerospace firm GKN, which argued that the festival should be given each licence on a twelve month term, with a formal review every five years and more consultation with local residents and businesses. GKN had objected after the traffic chaos caused by the rain deluged 2012 Festival. Promoter John Giddings has been required to make public an Event Safety, Operational & Traffic Management Plan.  Giddings also said that whilst he that he was willing to invest in improving the local infrastructure around his Festival's site to avoid the problems that occurred this year should the event be hit by very wet weather again in the future, he would not be able to fund wide scale infrastructure improvements telling the Committee  "I'm willing to put my hand in my pocket, but if you don't want us to, just tell me and we'll go away".