Towards the end of the summer Cllr Max Deckers Dowber was part of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee which looked into the ‘Events Strategy’. This was based on the Cabinets approval for the future coordination a new event strategy in Lambeth.
The call-in had been brought to the committee because of questions raised about noise, the size and scale of possible future events, the structure, the purpose, the community funding pot, the licensing of future events and resident involvement in what type of events might be held in Lambeth’s open green spaces.
Our very own former Labour Thurlow Park ward cllr Ann Kingsbury spoke as did a range of people including cllrs from both Lambeth and Wandsworth, resident groups and individual residents.
Of direct relevance to our part of the borough there was a discussion about Brockwell Park regarding damage, whether the park could handle eight major events a year, and what the impact there might be in terms of its ability to recover from such events.
It was clear from the various conversations residents from across the borough valued our open green spaces and that greater input from residents was needed.
In response to questions Cllr Jack Hopkins, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Business and Culture, responded by acknowledging the importance of the relationship between residents, open green spaces and the Council, that the strategy proposed tighter governance involving ward councillors and Friends groups, and that it was about establishing and understanding baselines of what was acceptable. That cllrs would be expected to provide input on the standard licenses and that while there would no longer be a Council out-of-hours noise team acoustic consultants were employed to monitor levels of noise.
It was accepted that councillors should be involved in pre-event processes in order that the concerns of local residents be incorporated, while the post-event debrief would review conditions, breaches, improvements, and whether event producers or their sub-contractors were at fault, so that the Council could share good practice with future partners or sub-contractors for future events.
In ending the meeting resolved not to refer the decision back to Cabinet but nonetheless to make such recommendations to Cabinet as it sees fit. There were almost 20 such recommendations.
To see the recommendations and any further information please visit;
https://moderngov.lambeth.gov.uk/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=113
Thurlow Park News 