Lambeth council must be called out, festivals are causing huge amounts of damage to Brockwell Park

24 May 2025, 14:14 | Updated: 27 May 2025, 18:36

So it’s 10 days since the massive steel walls were erected and the HGVs moved in….the Brockwell Live festivals are kicking off....

I am listening to the sound checks as I write this on Friday 23 May, yet last Friday, exactly a week ago, I was sitting in the Royal Courts of Justice hearing a Judge announce that Brockwell Live does not have lawful planning permission to go ahead. It’s too long, he said.

It took a high court judge to tell them this simple fact. We’d been telling them since last summer. These are too big to be rubber stamped.

They need to get proper planning permission. That’s all we asked for – proper scrutiny and consultation. They ignored us. Thousands of their concerned residents, signing petitions, writing letters, attending meetings, writing to MPs.

Attending consultations that then turned out to not be consultations after all. Because, sorry, we are just “residents”. Ordinary park users. Not stake holders of the park. We don’t have a voice. As for the ‘real’ stake holders – Brockwell Park Community Partners - they said NO to the planned events too. Lambeth Council ignored them too. So we took Lambeth Council to court. We didn’t want to.

But we had nowhere else to go. We had to make our voices heard. We put our hands in our pockets, 800 of us, because Lambeth Council ignore us if it doesn’t suit them to listen. We want to have festivals that are appropriate for a small park that serves a community most of whom don’t have a garden or a back yard. Am I a NIMBY? No .

It’s not MY back yard. But nor is it Lambeth’s. They hold it on trust for the community, for public recreation not for commercial profit. And Lambeth Council are acting outside the law. We have called it out. A high court judge has called it out.

And we will continue to call it out. In the interests of our park and those who need it most.

We wish all of those who bought tickets to the festival a wonderful day. Also all the traders – especially the local ones, we are glad you can trade today. And for the performers who were booked for these festivals months ago.

You must have been very stressed these past few weeks. Why? Not because of us. Because of Lambeth Council. They are responsible for this car crash. They didn’t do it properly. They didn’t have lawful planning. They didn’t listen. And they don’t care. But we do.

Because events in Brockwell Park have grown and grown to an industrial scale since 2018. More festivals . Bigger event site. More capacity. In turn more infrastructure, higher steel walls , locals kept out for longer , more security guards, more CCTV. More HGV’s. Ending with HUGE DAMAGE. And we care about this.

Last year when the festivals were over and the infrastructure was finally gone the park had the worst hangover. Dry mud replaced grass. It looked like scorched earth for the rest of the summer. Then weeds grew to replace grass.

Then a bog came for the whole winter. The ground last week was still damaged. The year had not been long enough for it to recover. And then it all started again.

The damage to a precious open green space in the name of joy? Or profit. Is this culture versus nature? Or profit versus nature? Whatever the debate it, one thing is for sure, everyone needs their voice heard. Ultimately this is about a local authority – Lambeth Council- who has created a nightmare.

Consistently bending the rules and downplaying concerns even from its own expert consultees. They’ve been doing it on Festivals since 2018. They do it with LTNs. They do it with estate regeneration. Shame on Lambeth Council.

Long live festivals not backed by private equity companies, that don’t make parks feel like occupied territory, that are held in appropriate venues following proper planning.

Not damaging our parks and shutting us out of the public debate and our public space every summer, year in year out. Now that would be real joy.

In the meantime, Lambeth can’t accept the simple conclusion that the events can’t just be nodded through planning anymore. They are appealing the High Court ruling. Spending more taxpayers’ money on fees to ensure our voices, and the Judge’s, are quashed. And us? We’ll keep fighting – donations to our crowd fund please! This could help you protect your park against commercialisation too.

Lucy Akrill is a Herne Hill resident and campaigner for ProtectBrockwellPark.org, protecting parks, protecting the whole community’s voice.

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