In a letter leaked to the Brixton Buzz website, lawyers for the group campaigning against large music events in Brockwell Park have told the council that no Brockwell Live events can go ahead.
“As there is no planning permission for the Brockwell Live event, the event has to be cancelled,” the letter from solicitors Goodenough Ring tells the council.
A judge has ruled that planning permission should have been sought for the events. The lawyers say that, because an application would take at least three weeks to complete due to consultation requirements, the events, planned to start in a week’s time, cannot go ahead.
There is no prospect of postponement because headline acts will have other bookings.
A Lambeth council spokesperson said tonight (16 May): “We are currently assessing the impact of this judgement and determining next steps”.
The shows under threat are Wide Awake, Field Day, Cross The Tracks, City Splash and Mighty Hoopla. Also threatened is Brockwell Bounce, a free festival for children.
There are serious doubts over the Lambeth Country Show due to take place on 7 and 8 June.
It depends on the infrastructure that would be used for the other events – saving the council more than half a million pounds, which it says enables it to keep the country show free.
So while the campaigners say they are content for the country show to go ahead, it is possible that their actions have ruled this out.
One opponent of the campaigners, commenting on their slogan “Brockwell Park. Our Park”, told the Blog it posed a vital question: “Where there is an ‘our’, there must also be a ‘we’. And who are the ‘we’ in this case?”
Lucy Akrill, co-founder of Protect Brockwell Park, commenting on the judgement, said: “This is a victory not just for Brockwell Park, but for communities everywhere fighting to preserve their green spaces.”
Protect Brockwell Park summarises its aims as follows:
- Lambeth council to follow the law and to ensure that all consents are obtained properly and lawfully including planning permission for commercial events like these festivals
- Lambeth council to consult the local community about how to balance the interests of festival goers and the local community
- Brockwell Park to have full ecological assessments so that Lambeth understands the real and cumulative impact of festivals on the park
- To respect nature: to have fewer and shorter festivals with one or more fallow years and consideration of holding the events later in the year – around what is best for nature and local residents, not profits.
- Honesty and transparency about how much money the festivals make, and how it is spent to benefit Brockwell Park and local people.
- The campaign said today’s judgement was “the second major legal defeat for Lambeth council in just over a week, following West Dulwich Action Group’s win over the low traffic neighbourhood scheme. The pressure is mounting for the council to start listening to its residents.”
Pathetic. I see the park bounce back every year. It has a few scattered trees in the areas where the festivals actually take place. Sounds like this small and wealthy minority have decided that since they aren’t involved or part of the fun, that it must be stopped. What a sad excuse to claim it’s “environmentalism”. I think the WE would be the thousands of people taking part in enjoying the space while supporting arts and culture. Not ten locals who have absolutely nothing better to do with their time. Wet wipes. They should be ashamed. Instead they posed like superheroes in a photo plastered on the guardian. Bravo, says nobody but themselves. This is a massive loss for businesses and community. Something they claim to represent but clearly do not.
Little unhappy and pathetic group of people ruining the fun for millions.
Who do you think stops your council tax going up? Now you have some middle class trustapharians and Karen’s (who don’t have much going on in life sadly) stopping a much needed revenue source that will increase the cost of living for the wider borough. A few days of activity to bring in revenue when council are so poor. Who on earth are these people? Absolute fools.