Field Day given licence to hold event this summer subject to conditions

Since Lovebox and Field Day made applications to Lambeth last autumn to hold events in Brockwell Park, we have been working hard to ensure residents’ views are listened to. We have knocked on doors in the local area, worked closely with community and park
groups, and organised a public meeting last December to consult Thurlow Park
residents.

Reflecting on what you told us, we established some conditions which we felt large events in Brockwell Park ought to meet – these are set out on our blog here.

In January we were able to successfully push for Lovebox to be turned down as we did not feel that they met our conditions and they were not showing willingness to compromise on their plans.

In March, again reflecting what you have told us, we objected to Field Day being granted a licence unless certain strict conditions were met. Our submission to the Licensing Committee called for shorter opening hours, reduced noise levels and a better-managed exit from the park, in recognition of the fact there was going to be a lot of disruption to local area and that people such as shift workers and children doing their GCSE exams needed better protection.

>> You can read our full submission here.

We fought your case hard and spoke on residents’ behalf at the Licensing Committee hearing. The level of scrutiny of the organisers and the number of residents who spoke meant the hearing went on until midnight.

Cllr Fred Cowell speaking at the Licensing Committee hearing

After a further five days deliberation, the Licensing Committee have decided to award Field Day a one year licence to hold the event in Brockwell Park, subject to certain
conditions. You can view the full decision on Lambeth’s licensing site.

Our views of the decision are:

We had a degree of success in securing an enhanced security plan that is far in excess of anything at previous events in the park.

We are disappointed that the hours have not been reduced as significantly as we asked for, but were able to secure a partial reduction in opening times on Friday and Saturday and a fuller reduction on Sunday evening so that alcohol sales end at 9pm and music will end at 9.30pm.

Most importantly the licence is for this year only and we have secured a post-festival consultation at which we will review how it went and, if necessary, block it from ever coming to the park again.

Outside of the licensing process, we have secured a commitment to review the parks events policy later this year, including looking at a cap on overall numbers at events and a trigger for public consultation, which would affect any event applications for 2019.

In the short term events provide a means of managing the vast funding shortfall that parks are facing as a result of the huge cuts to local authority grants imposed by the
Tory government. In the medium to long term, we want to move away from music festivals as a source of income and are working with park groups and the Council on a project to redevelop Brockwell Hall to allow it to be used for weddings. Brockwell Park is at the very heart of our community and we remain committed to safeguarding it with tangible action not empty promises.

Field Day Licensing Application for Brockwell Park – we want to hear your views

Brockwell park is host to Field Day from the 1-3 of June. This is a much larger commercial event than the park has previously hosted and we are currently working with the organisers on managing and controlling the event.

We understand the concern about large events in Brockwell Park. We fought to block another larger event, Lovebox, from coming to the park, have refused permission for previous events that have not met the standards required in the park to return, and will
be having a post event consultation on whether Field Day comes back to the park next year.

As part of the authorisation process, Field Day has to go through a licensing application. This determines whether under the 2003 Licensing Act it can be granted a licence to sell alcohol and host live music. The Council’s licensing committee then has to review the application. This is a statutory process which is independent from political considerations. The committee is required to take the following four things into account.

the prevention of crime and disorder
the prevention of public nuisance
the promotion of public safety
the protection of children from harm

Field day are currently applying for a licence which runs from midday each day of the festivals and ends at 11pm on Friday and Saturday and 10:30pm on Sunday.

As your local councillors, we have been consistent in engaging with local residents, listening to views and concerns, and working on your behalf. Since Field Day and Lovebox first applied to come to Brockwell park, we have met with many residents’ groups, worked with community and park organisations, doorknocked local streets and organised a public meeting for Thurlow Park residents to have their say. We published our view on this website here before Christmas and lobbied hard to stop Lovebox from coming, and for Field Day to reduce the size of the event.

We are currently drafting a submission for the licensing committee to consider, on behalf of Thurlow Park residents, though we would also like residents to make their own submissions on the application itself, and how the event should be managed.

In particular we would like your views on:

We are concerned about the lateness of the times on all evenings. In particular, we are concerned about the Sunday close time given that GCSE exams are the next day. We would like to move these hours back. What is your view on appropriate hours for the events to finish?
How the dispersal should be managed in order to maximise public safety? – at the moment the plan is to exit largely through the Herne Hill entrance.
Should there be a lower upper limit on the noise than the festivals last summer? There were a number of complaints about the noise and we want to get it right.
Field Day have made some extensive commitments about immediate clear up as
well as a general clear up. Where should there resources be targeted?
Under the terms of the Licensing Act, is there anything else we should take
into account?

To tell us what you think, you can email Cllr Fred Cowell on fcowell@lambeth.gov.uk or respond using our online survey here.

Lovebox not coming to Brockwell Park

We welcome the announcement that Lovebox plan to hold their festival in Gunnersbury rather than Brockwell Park.

Having listened to residents and worked closely with local community groups, we have been clear that Brockwell Park is not a suitable venue for such a large event and that it isn’t acceptable for the park to be fenced off for so many days during the summer holidays.

For more detail on our view on events in Brockwell Park, please see here.

Our view on major events in Brockwell Park

Yesterday evening Thurlow Park’s
Labour councillors hosted a public meeting to listen to the views and concerns
of local residents on possible events in Brockwell Park. Since Lovebox and
Field Day, two major events organisers, announced that they were applying to
move their festivals to Brockwell Park in 2018, this is just one of the ways we
have been listening to residents and seeking feedback – we have also heard from
over 100 of you by email, engaged with groups and individuals on social media,
doorknocked locally, and met with parks groups and local resident associations.

No decision has been taken
on the applications submitted by Lovebox and Field Day, and we wanted to ensure
that our residents’ views help to shape the way we challenge and scrutinise
these applications.

Events in our parks are part of a
difficult balancing act – since the Tory Government cut Lambeth’s funding by
over 50%, our parks need income in order to keep them maintained and looked
after. However, large events have a major impact on local residents and on the
fabric of the park – in terms of noise, disruption to transport, a large part
of the park fenced off for a significant period of the summer, anti-social
behaviour, loss of income for local traders, and the sheer volume of people
coming and going. Brockwell Park is such a vital part of our community that any
decision as to its future has to be taken very carefully.

Until
Brockwell Hall is refurbished and able to host such events as weddings and
conferences that would bring in sufficient income for the park, we understand
the need for some events to keep the park usable for everyone the rest of the
year round. However, we have some red lines on their scale and impact, which we
developed after listening to the concerns of residents.

We
believe applications from event organisers should meet these criteria:

40,000 people, as
proposed by Lovebox and Field Day, is too big for a park the size of Brockwell. We believe around 25,000 people per-day
should be the ceiling for large commercial events in the park.
Outsized
or large events which involve more than 20,000 people per day over multiple days must be limited to one a
year. There simply isn’t the scope alongside hosting the Country Show to
have more than one major commercial event and keep the park running for all
users to enjoy.
Set-up
and pack-down times must be kept to a minimum. The current proposals from
Lovebox and Field day shut off a significant portion of the park for many weeks
over the summer – this is unacceptable. Event days and set up and set down days
are the same thing for many park users who are blocked from their regular use
of the park.
The
‘footprint’ of the event must be limited and the days the park is fenced off
must be kept to a minimum.
Any
commercial event in Brockwell Park should be an accredited London Living Wage
employer, and should make this a condition in their contracts and
sub-contracts.
Commercial
events organisers should have a local procurement strategy – councillors
and the local community should have a key role in designing this strategy and
an ongoing role in monitoring its implementation.
Event
organisers should have a robust and detailed local travel plan that takes
into account not only Brixton tube station, but Tulse Hill and Herne Hill
stations, local buses, parking and pedestrian congestion.
On top of paying for additional policing, commercial event organisers should have
visible security staff in surrounding streets to prevent anti-social behaviour.
The wellbeing of local residents should be at the heart of any event organiser’s event planning and delivery. There should be a dedicated number for residents to call and a quick response time to any issues raised such as excessive noise.
As well as paying for the clear-up in the park
afterwards, events organisers should be
responsible for clear-up outside the park’s fences too – from littering,
anti-social behaviour and damage to property.
Any
commercial event organisers coming to Brockwell Park must provide high quality
apprenticeships to local young people. The number of apprenticeships should
be proportional to the size of the event.

As it currently stands, neither
event meets our criteria, so we oppose either application being progressed
unless they are prepared to make significant changes to their events.

From what we understand to date, Lovebox
have not yet made any indication they are willing to reduce the size of their
event, and have refused our request to stop selling tickets until their
application has been progressed. For this reason, we do not currently think
Lovebox should come to Brockwell Park.

Field Day have suggested that they are open to making some
changes to their application and we are open to working with to see if
something can be delivered that works for the park.

We also believe that it is not
appropriate to offer multi-year deals to new events. As we saw with Sunfall,
some event companies promise one thing but fail to deliver, causing disruption
and damage. We think an annual review of applications allows councillors and
the community the opportunity to reject event organisers who have proven
themselves to be irresponsible.

In assessing these applications,
we have identified some areas where Lambeth’s event strategy may need benefit
from a refresh – for example, it currently only talks about event days and does
not take into account how long it takes companies to set up and pack down their
stages and equipment. We think this is an opportunity to involve experts and
members of the community to address issues like access to the park, event
footprints and duration, an upper limit on volume of people, noise, anti-social
behaviour and other local impacts.

We also believe it is an opportunity
for a transparent discussion about park finances and the need for investment,
and to develop a stronger commercial offer which adds greater value to our
local community in the future for events wanting to come to Brockwell Park.

Proposed Lovebox and Fieldday events in Brockwell Park – we want to hear your views

Two companies responsible for designing and building
large scale music events have approached Lambeth with a view to hosting events
in Brockwell Park. These events – Lovebox and Fieldday – were previously held in
Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets and are now looking for a new home.

It is important to emphasise that no decision on either
event has been made and all events that take place in the park are subject to a
rigorous scrutiny process. Both companies are cooperating fully with this
process and are engaging with the community.

We understand that there is some anxiety about a repeat of problems experienced at last year’s Sunfall Festival. There has been no application up
to now for the Sunfall event which took place over the last two summers to be
held next year and at this stage it won’t happen in 2018.

It seems there has
been some advanced advertising by both Fieldday and Lovebox which has led to residents
enquiring whether a decision has been taken already. This has no bearing
whatsoever on the decision process and is a commercial matter for these
companies – we are asking them not to preempt the decision process and to stop
advertising their events in Brockwell Park until any decision has been made.

In coming to a decision on whether any event takes place
in the park – including these two – the council will need to weigh up a number
of factors including any reduction in access to the park for the community, the
effect of the event on the condition of the park and maintenance of the grounds
and the impact on local businesses and transport networks.

There is the opportunity for some much needed investment
into the park which is important because of dwindling public resources for
investment in parks due to continuing Central government cuts. An event of this
scale would enable much more to be spent on improving green activities and play
facilities.

However the applications for these two events are far
larger than any private event that has been held in Brockwell Park for many
years. There is significant concern about the amount of the park that will be
fenced off and the level of interference in the use of the park by residents.
The overall scale of disruption caused by the set up and set down period of an
event this size has also been raised by local residents.

We have been working hard with the Brockwell Park Community Partners, neighbourhood forums, community groups and local residents to understand these concerns. We have met with the events organisers to ask for answers to these issues and for them to consider how they can support local businesses, minimise impact on the park during set up and pack down, keep nuisance to a minimum during the event, and pay the London Living Wage. We attended a public meeting organised by Fieldday and are following up concerns raised by attendees.

To support this work, we need to hear your view. We are organising an event to listen to concerns and answer any questions we are able to and relay questions to officers and organisers that we don’t yet have answers for.

Please join us on 11th December from 7pm at Holy Trinity Church, Trinity Rise. So we have an idea of numbers, please RSVP here: brockwell-events-your-views.eventbrite.co.uk

SunFall Music Event – Brockwell Park

Please find the below Community Notice regarding the forthcoming Sun Fall music event on Saturday 12 August in Brockwell Park. If you have any questions /comments please get in contact.

See our related blog piece about events in Brockwell Park here – https://thurlowparklabour.org/post/150311867932/events-strategy-for-brockwell-park

Noise Management

Based on the feedback from 2016, and the public consultation conducted as part of the Premises Licence application process for 2017 we are making the following changes amongst others:

• A single audio company will be responsible for the supply and operation of audio systems across the site.
• All audio systems will be of Martin Audio MLA type, which is more controllable and precise technology to minimise offsite noise.
• The number of noise monitoring consultants is being doubled so that levels can be better calibrated between onsite and offsite monitoring locations.
• Noise barrier walls shall be erected at strategic points alongside the northern side of the site.

Waste Management

Sunfall Festival is committed to keeping its environmental impact to a minimum and this is reflected in the site recycling measures we have put in place under the management of a contractor with a proven track record having served the Lambeth Country Show in recent years.

Furthermore, Sunfall Festival will implement a carefully thought-through waste management plan which incorporates the regular sweep of the surrounding areas of the park and residential areas which may be affected by associated footfall.

The nominated main waste contractor shall control the elimination of all waste within the site footprint and immediate surrounding area.

In addition, Veolia have been engaged to conduct sweeps and a final clearance in the immediate surrounding streets to the north of the park as per the briefing note previously circulated.

Waste management operations will continue over Sunday 13th August 2017, Monday 14th August 2017 and Tuesday 15th August 2017.

Security and Policing

Crowd safety and the safety of the public is very important to us. We have brought in the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to provide additional support to our nominated crowd management and security provider within the site to coordinate a carefully planned strategy of crowd supervision aimed at ensuring the safety of attendees as well as minimising the risk of disturbances across the local area.

Over 100 PSIA licensed security personnel in addition to crowd safety stewards will be on duty at the event – working both within and outside our fenced perimeter.

We will be assisting the MPS in the strategy of discreet searches for banned substances and monitoring of nuisance behaviour as well as maintaining vigilance towards any potential terror-related behaviour.

We have provisioned 7 MPS personnel to patrol the internal site footprint for the duration of the live event and MPS have assigned 12 personnel to patrol the external area and conduct discreet searches.

Sunfall will assign dedicated security personnel to control vehicle access at the main Herne Hill entrance during the construction period and at Brockwell Park Gardens vehicle gate for artist access during the live period.

Community Safety

This year we are contracting the provision of 4 x LBL Community Safety Officers, to work exclusively outside of our event footprint but to help minimise the impact of the festival on the surrounding streets.

These officers shall be on duty from 1100hrs-2300hrs so that they are present for the ingress and egress of festival attendees.

Contacting Sunfall

Email /web enquiries: communities@sunfall.co.uk /https://www.sunfall.co.uk/
Telephone: 07749 948670

Name: Laura Armstrong

Events in Brockwell Park

Brockwell Park has been holding a number of different events recently, ranging from dance festivals to fun runs. We know from speaking to residents who often enjoy going to these events, that ensuring they are well run, not unduly disruptive and that the park is kept tidy is very important to them.

We have been doing a lot of work with the Brockwell Park Community Partners and Park officers to try and improve the way these events work in the park, and in terms of the impact they have on local users.

One area where there has been considerable concern is the amount of rubbish in the park which significantly escalates during and after events but also when the weather is warm on weekends leading to overflowing bins.

We have continued to work with officers to help secure extra resources between April and September to better manage the increase in litter. This includes weekend litter picks and dustcarts around the park, larger bins to absorb the increased waste at key points and new mechanised sweepers. This should hopefully keep the park clean for residents to enjoy the sunshine.

Protecing our precious parks

As a Council we face huge financial challenges. The Government has cut our funding by over 56% since 2010 and this has meant that the parks budget has reduced.

However, our priority has been to manage this challenge in a way that minimises the impact on parks users. We have cut back office costs, brought the maintenance service in-house and introduced a ‘Parks Investment Levy’ so that the proceeds from major events can be reinvested in our parks.

All this while we receive Green Flag park status across twelve of our parks in Lambeth – including Brockwell Park – meaning that they are officially ranked amongst the very best in the country.

We have also looked at opportunities for augmenting the reduced budget by earning more from the parks’ assets, such as introducing licensing for fitness trainers or professional dog walkers.

We are confident that the vast majority of residents won’t have noticed any difference in their local park – and we want to keep it that way. The council works very closely with Friends of Parks groups and together a new Parks Charter is being drawn up. This will set out and define the partnership between Lambeth and the Lambeth Parks Forum (the representative body of park users) and will cover things like oversight of the budget, maintenance, consultation on nearby planning applications and how any available money (Section 106 or CIL) will be spent. It will also create a forum where users can propose initiatives, express concerns and receive regular feedback on the management of parks.

Finally, on a very positive note, in January 2015 Lambeth’s Cabinet approved a “Parks Capital Investment Programme”, paving the way for over £20m of investment up to 2019. Around £11m of this will come from Lambeth and the remainder from external sources such as the Heritage Lottery. We are determined to see our parks protected so future generations can continue to enjoy them.

You can find more details on our website: https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/sites/default/files/pts-draft-parks-capital-investment-plan-2014.pdf

Take a dip for charity?

Come down to the Brockwell Lido on 8th October to support the swimmers braving the autumnal cold to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support – or better still join them!

There is still time to register and train for the event – participants swim 2km or 5km, and under 18s can swim 1.5km. Alternatively, enter with a team of friends and family to swim a relay.

For information and to register, check out www.macmillan.org.uk/alloutswimbrockwell

Park maintenance to come back in-house – good news for Brockwell Park

The parks maintenance contract is coming to an end in April 2016 and Cllr Jane Edbrooke, cabinet member for culture, has led on reviewing how we take the service forward – especially in light of the parks maintenance specification as set out in Culture 2020.

There is a significant reduction to the parks budget from next year thanks to severe central Government cuts to our funding, and we’ve been determined to find a way forward which safeguards our parks and provides value for money.

We had a really clear steer from residents involved with Brockwell Park and from local Labour Party members that the possibility of taking the grounds maintenance contract in house should be explored as a means to get better value for money from available funds. We raised this aspiration with the cabinet members.

We are therefore really pleased that it has been recommended to cabinet that the parks service be brought back in-house.We believe this is great news – not only will the grounds staff have better terms and conditions than they currently have, we will be able to look towards integration with other services like our grounds maintenance on housing estates.

More information can be found here and we are happy to answer any questions. We expect the decision on this recommendation to take place on 14th December, and anticipate that should we go ahead we will establish a direct labour force from April 2016.