Brockwell Park locals take battle against festivals to the High Court

Local residents opposed to Lambeth Council’s decision to grant permission for a series of festivals in Brockwell Park are taking their legal challenge to the High Court tomorrow. Campaign group Protect Brockwell Park is seeking a court order blocking the Brockwell Live series of music festivals which are set to kick off this Bank Holiday weekend. The 500,000 sq m park is surrounded by the Herne Hill, Tulse Hill, West Dulwich and Brixton areas of south London. The group claims that in recent years Brockwell Park’s roster of community events has mushroomed into a series of large scale, ticketed festivals that block off large parts of the park with 3m-high fences for weeks on end and damage the park. “We are not anti-festival,” the group said in a statement on its website. “We support well-run, inclusive events. But these large-scale, high-impact commercial festival are damaging Brockwell Park’s ecology, heritage and community value. The park is being overused and under protected.” Save Brockwell Park’s legal case focuses on the permitted development rules used by Lambeth to give the events the green light. Lambeth is the planning authority responsible for the park, it owns the park in trust on behalf of the public and it’s a partner of the Brockwell Live series of event. Under permitted development rules, temporary use of the park for up to 28 days per year is allowed without added planning permission as long as a General Permitted Development Order is applied for. However, the campaigners’ legal team argues the order should not have been granted because the temporary use exceeds 28 days. The events will run over three weekends, and Lambeth calculates the temporary use to total 17 days. However, the build period for the festivals was set to start on 11 May, and deinstallation of all the structures won’t be completed until after the Lambeth County Show on 16 June. This, the campaigners say, means the permission should be rescinded and the festivals shouldn’t go ahead. The first festival scheduled is Wide Awake on 23 May, followed by Field Day on 24 May, Cross the Tracks on 25 May and City Splash on 26 May. Mighty Hoopla takes place on 31 May and 1 June. The Lambeth County Fair, which isn’t ticketed and is free to enter, takes place the following weekend. The case will be heard on Thursday with judgment scheduled for Friday. Image © Estates Gazette