Protect Brockwell Park (BPC) announced today (23 May) that it has begun a legal challenge to the new certificate issued by Lambeth council that has allowed the Brockwell Live events in. the park to go ahead.
The Wide Awake one-day event began today at noon.
PBC said it would also oppose any appeal by the council against the ruling by a High Court judge that its original certificate for the events was unlawful.
“As festivals take place this weekend, we hope everyone enjoys them,” BPC said in a statement.. |Meanwhile, we’ll be preparing to face Lambeth in court.
“We remain open to dialogue and would welcome the opportunity to sit down with industry representatives and Lambeth council to find a constructive way forward.
“We have repeatedly conveyed our concerns to Lambeth and Brockwell Live but our voices have fallen on deaf ears.
“Using legal manoeuvres and certificates to silence concerned community voices – as Lambeth and Brockwell Live are doing – is not the answer.
“It undermines public trust in the justice system when a clear court ruling can be so brazenly disregarded. We have a strong judgement, we are confident, and we will keep fighting.”
Earlier, Donatus Anyanwu, Lambeth council’s cabinet member for stronger communities, said that striking a balance between putting on a world-class, inclusive, diverse cultural programme and protecting and stewarding award-winning parks and open spaces “is at the heart of our strategy around events in Brockwell Park and across the borough”.
He said this balance could often be a challenging one to strike, “but is something which we do not want to shy away from, and which we will continue to work hard on with our communities.We’re really pleased that these exciting, diverse and popular cultural events are taking place over the next few weeks, and we know the news that they are proceeding will be a relief to the tens of thousands of attendees and the many local businesses and suppliers that benefit significantly from them.”
Cllr Anyanwu said that, in addition to their significant cultural and wider economic benefits, the events bring in £150,000 for park investment and local community projects, on top of the £500,000 spent annually maintaining Brockwell Park. And they allowed the Lambeth Country Show to remain one of the largest free community festivals in the UK.
“Due to the unprecedented budget pressures on local government, these investments for local residents would likely not be possible without income generated from events,” he said.
“The council acknowledges last week’s decision by the High Court and is reflecting on our processes relating to events in our parks.
“However, we have also seen inaccurate commentary that suggests that the judgement renders all events in our parks unlawful and this is just not true.
“I recognise that that there are strong feelings on all sides in our local community about these events and we continue to seek a middle ground that enables a fantastic programme of events to take place in a section of the park, whilst making sure the entire park remains open for the rest of the year, including over the school summer holidays.
“We continue to engage in depth with residents, and have done over a number of years, about holding events in parks, and have made major changes around the timing, frequency, revised parking and traffic management, improved noise monitoring, independent ecological impact assessment and footprint of the events to accommodate local concerns.
“Clearly it will never be possible to please everybody and we will continue to engage with all residents, community groups and businesses to hear the concerns raised by local people around noise, the condition of the park and the impact on the surrounding area and we will continue to work hard to put in place mitigations.”
Councillors and event organisers should try living in the area with an infant that can’t sleep due to many hours and endless days of these events. The events have grown over the past years to an intolerable level and cause a nuisance to those that live nearby; particularly in the large blocks of flats next to the park. Someone needs to get a grip on the madness by the council – all community consultations have been a sham. If anyone else produced such a disturbance they’d be arrested.