Residents living near the Glastonbury Festival site have called for tighter noise controls to prevent locals from being disturbed during the event.

Glastonbury Festival Events Ltd. (GFEL) staged this year's festival at the Worthy Farm site in Pilton between June 26 and 30, with more than 200,000 people being in attendance to see Dua Lipa, Coldplay and SZA headline.

Nick Hall, who sits on Pilton Parish Council, said that claims of fewer noise issues at this year's event were "not the experience of residents" and called for tighter control and better engagement with the local community.

Somerset Council said it had committed additional resources to monitoring noise overnight and believed there was no need to change its approach to either enforcement or community engagement.

Mr Hall addressed the council's communities scrutiny committee in a personal capacity when it met in Taunton on October 30.

He said: "Your report states that there was a significant decrease in noise complaints when compared to 2023. That is not the experience of residents in Pilton.

"Noise limits were breached on the Thursday evening and overnight (after the midnight curfew).

"Why is there no reference to the noise nuisance (and risk) from the helicopters and the helicopter landing sites that serviced the festival?

"I counted 50 helicopters on the morning of Monday, July 1, and it was reported that 85 helicopters landed on the Saturday.

"Why hasn't there been consultation with the parishes around the festival site ahead of the growth of this mode of transport to the festival?"

Mr Hall said that the council should consider using a third party to monitor noise from the 2025 festival if it did not have the resources to carry out this task using its own resources.

He added: "Why is no discussion about the effectiveness of community consultation, when clearly there has been feedback that the present model is broken and not fit for purpose?

"The present model is GFEL-led. They are selective in the feedback they consider, to the point where dissenting voices are put down."

Since Mendip District Council approved the current licence for the Glastonbury Festival in 2018, the number of attendees at the event has grown to around 210,000 – with planning permission being awarded for the site to be expanded in 2023.

Mr Hall said that this increase had led to a growth in "off-site camp-sites and events" during the festival, which presented an "increased likelihood of virus epidemics".

In light of its ongoing financial pressures, the council implemented numerous savings which affected the level of resources it allocated to the 2024 event compared to its predecessor.

These includes a 34 per cent in staff allocated to the festival (saving £17,000), using 75 per cent fewer vehicles (saving £6,400) and a 41 per cent reduction in monitoring costs (saving £23,000)

Dave Coles, Somerset Council's head of regulatory services, said that none of the terms of the current licence had been breached by this year's festival.

He said: "In terms of overnight noise, there were no breach of the licence conditions.

"We continue to monitor this year until 4am, with our teams on site reacting to any complaints we received. Glastonbury Festival had consultants on site the whole time, so we feel there is adequate monitoring being undertaken.

"This year we had 11 noise complaints, compared to 41 last year, and there are resources available to undertake the necessary monitoring.

"We're not able to deal with helicopters under environmental health or licensing legislation; that would be a matter for the Civil Aviation Authority. I believe GFEL is looking into this to see if there is anything they can do.

"We put in extra resources to monitor off-site camp-sites, all of which were visited early on in the festival.

"I personally don't feel that there needs to be a change to the current system."

The next Glastonbury Festival will take place between June 25 and 29, 2025.