No more Lambeth Country Show: Battle for Brockwell Park returns
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As I was putting this edition to bed, there was some late breaking news from south London. The Battle for Brockwell Park — which we covered at great length in the spring and sparked a wider debate about festivals taking over London parks — has seen another a victory for the residents who feel there were too many events in their local green space.
In a statement, Lambeth Council has largely thrown in the towel and accepted that the private promoters that organise events such as Field Day will in future have to go through a full planning process. The local authority has agreed to pay the legal fees of the residents who took their own council to court. Lily Allen might think she’s playing Mighty Hoopla in May but that’s now very much subject to approval. That doesn’t mean the events won’t go ahead. But it could lead to more restrictions and set precedents for other London councils that rent out public parks for major events in the summer months.
Labour-run Lambeth council said it now plans to hold fewer events held in Brockwell Park. The first one to get the chop is the Lambeth Country Show, a free event which was subsidised by the council and used the private festivals’ infrastructure. The council’s press release said they’d need to pay £1m to fund the show and this is “not justifiable” when the local authority is facing a financial crisis. Lambeth’s decision ends an event that has run in various forms for more than 50 years. It also means no more topical vegetable sculpture competitions, a much-loved feature that delighted news outlets across the capital and hipster Instagram accounts in equal measure.
The council’s decision might have been influenced by the fact that had they faced another public legal battle, it would have come to a head in the middle of next year’s local elections, with the Greens and Lib Dems breathing down their neck. While not all locals were on the same page, it shows how one woman who actually read the law around planning in parks may have permanently changed London’s festival scene.
Editor’s note: When not writing London Centric, I volunteer with a south London youth club that does incredible work on a tiny budget. This week we’re running a fundraiser where every pound donated by members of the public will be doubled by a generous
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