ORGANISERS of Boomtown have shelved controversial plans that would have seen the popular music festival's attendance capacity by 20,000 over the next two years.

Following discussions with Hampshire Constabulary the organisers of the festival have instead opted to maintain the current capacity limit of 59,999 with provisions for 5,000 additional staff, artists and their guests to attend, as well as an additional 1,000 tickets to be provided to local residents.

The original plans would have seen the festival at Matterley Bowl increase its capacity to 80,000 by 2019, with the numbers of attendees rising to 76,000 for the next event on August 9-12, before allowing a further 4,000 music fans to attend in 2019.

The original application received 91 representations, 88 of which were objections.

The revised plans should please local residents who were concerned about increased traffic as well as noise pollution from the expansion plans.

At a drop-in session held by the organisers and Winchester City Council’s licensing department at Itchen Abbas and Avington Village Hall in December, Boomtown community liaison officer Caroline Johnson said that they were doing everything they could to minimise disruption, including using acoustic barriers to try and minimise sound leaving the venue.

“If you look at the amount of noise complaints compared to 2002, the number of complaints has gone down, and keeps going down, year on year,” she added.

BoomTown has announced world-famous alternative rock band Gorillaz as the first headline act for the 2018 festival, which will mark BoomTown’s tenth anniversary.

The revised application will be considered at the Winchester City Council Licensing Sub-Committee at 11am today.