The Protect Brockwell Park group said tonight (20 May) that it would “immediately” challenge Lambeth council if it grants a “certificate of lawfulness” allowing Brockwell Live events in the park to go ahead.
The alternative music festival Wide Awake – the first event, is due to open its gates at noon on Friday (23 May).
On Friday 16 May a judge ruled that that Lambeth council should have undertaken a full planning permission process before approving work on infrastructure for the festivals in Brockwell Park.
The council had based its decision not to do this on legislation allowing temporary changed use of open space for up to 28 days in a year without full planning permission.
While the events themselves may fit into this timescale, if time for setting up and taking down infrastructure is included, the temporary use allowance is exceeded.
The judge ruled that it was “self evident” that parts of the park would be out of action for longer than the temporary use provisions allow.
Four of the 28 days have already been used by “Pines and Needles” Christmas tree sales in the park.
The council says that it needs to use some of the Brockwell Live infrastructure to keep the Lambeth Country Show – due to take place on the weekend of 7 and 8 June – a free event.
Following the judgement, the council is considering a new temporary change of use certificate for parts of Brockwell Park for 24 days from 12 May (when it says set-up began) to 4 June “to accommodate the holding of the Brockwell Live events together with the installation and de-installation of associated temporary structures and infrastructure”.
The council has already separately granted full planning permission for the country show, which follows the Brockwell Live events.
Summer Events, which runs Brockwell Live, has obtained a legal opinion from expert Dr Ashley Bowes of Landmark Chambers, saying that there is no legal reason not to run the two different permission periods together and that it would be “bizarre” to suggest that legislation requires there to be a period between two permissions in which the use of the land concerned had to revert to its original use before the second permission could take effect.
Summer Events said in a covering letter to the application that it has been running large-scale outdoor events in local authorities including Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, Southwark and Hackney since 2007 and festivals in Brockwell Park since 2018.
A general admission ticket for Wide Awake, which won the Rolling Stone festival award last year, costs £69.50.
