Community rally to save Cold Ash music school

More than 200 people have signed petitions and written letters after noise dispute with neighbour

THE Cold Ash community is rallying to keep open a music school.

Leo Westby teaches from his home in Wee Mere, Cold Ash Hill, but his business is under threat of closure because of a noise dispute with a neighbour.

In a bid to ensure the school can stay open, Mr Westby has applied to West Berkshire Council for a certificate of existing use of a single room as a music studio, which would make it a lawful development and immune from enforcement.

Almost 100 people have sent letters in support of his application to the council and 150 people have signed a petition in Mr Westby's favour.

However, their efforts may not be enough to save the school, as the case is being taken up by the western area planning committee.

Mr Westby said that he has been told by planners that in order to gain the certificate he must prove the school has existed for at least 10 years.

He said that he knew people who were willing to testify to this, but he was angry that his livelihood has threatened on the basis of one complaint.

He said: “How much more support can you get from the community to say that people want it?

“I'm horrified by the noise complaint but it is fantastic that 160 people have come out and supported us.

“I have never had a problem for all of these years.”

Parent and villager Sean Bates, who spoke in support of the application at a recent Cold Ash Parish Council meeting, said that he approached Mr Westby to teach his children to play musical instruments when he moved to Cold Ash about 11 years ago.

He said: “I was impressed by his enthusiasm and his energy.

“Even then he was accumulating and saving towards the studio, he wanted to teach in a professional place.

“The support has been unprecedented and the objections limited.

“There has been a suggestion about noise, but the studio was built to withstand any noise.

“The people of the parish have made their feelings known.”

Mr Westby's neighbour Anne Harbin said that her family had owned their home for the past 41

years and that, for the more than 20 years the school had been run, they had had no cause for concern about noise or parking problems.

The case will be discussed at the planning meeting on Wednesday, February 9.