Cookham's answer to Glastonbury? Festival set to get bigger (From Bucks Free Press)

Cookham's answer to Glastonbury? Festival set to get bigger with performances from Billy Ocean, Boney M, Toyah, Go West, Heaven 17 and China Crisis

2:00pm Saturday 17th December 2011 in Cookham By Liz Cooley

AN INCREASINGLY popular music festival which worried residents once feared could become Cookham's answer to Glastonbury is set to get bigger still – prompting anger from a veteran councillor.

Platinum selling artist Billy Ocean will headline at a ‘bigger and better’ Let’s Rock the Moor next year at Meadow Marsh.

The Eighties pop legend, best known for When the Going gets Tough and Love Really Hurts Without You, will perform at the community music festival on May 12.

The new location will accommodate 6,500 people, 2,000 more than this year’s sold-out event.

Cllr John Stretton, who sits on both Cookham Parish Council and The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, the licensing authority, is worried about parking and noise pollution because the new location is so much closer to so many more people.

“For all the residents of Berries Road and Terrys Lane, in particular the 40 residents of Riverside Nursing Home who are all very elderly people, for them to have to listen to that retched noise for ten hours on that Saturday is totally out of order,” he said.

There were complaints about the first event in 2009 with some householders appealing for planners to block it going ahead the next time, fearing it could become a new Glastonbury scale event.

However, it got permission for 2010 and also took place this year, raising £7,500 for charity Wooden Spoon £3,900 for Link Foundation among others.

Sound expert, Peter Wilson, assured the Royal Borough’s licensing panel that a hard-backed stage at the proposed 2012 event would direct the music away from the village, meaning fewer residents were likely to be affected by unwanted noise.

Organisers have applied to to have live music from 11am to 10pm and alcohol sales from noon to 10pm.

Other acts announced for 2012 include Go West, Heaven 17, Boney M, Toyah and China Crisis.

Ex-Fun House presenter Pat Sharp will host the event, which will include a circus, small fairground rides, street theatre, creative workshops and a children’s cinema.

Tickets are available from The Stationery Depot in Cookham, and can be purchased on-line and in D&J News in Marlow and Martins in Bourne End from December 19.