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

Events Strategy Call in – summer 2016

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

Brockwell Park is a major part of Thurlow Park residents’ community life and hosts numerous events each year, including the Lambeth Country Show.

The number of events held in Brockwell Park is increasing; in part because it is such a wonderful location that performers, film crews and musicians are keen to use, and because such activities allow Lambeth to maintain the park to a high standard as events help to provide a source of income to Lambeth. With this in mind, it is necessary that we make sure that the income generated helps to fund vital services for residents and future investments.

As your local councillors we have been working carefully with the Brockwell Park Community partners, including Ann Kingsbury (pictured above), and other local stakeholders to ensure that disruption in the park is kept to absolute minimum. Generating income for the park must be balanced ensuring that the community is not overly burdened with events on their doorstep.

In advance of the Found Festival for example this June we have asked for detailed information to be made available to residents about the event and a contact number to be available to report any complaints. We will also be working closely with Event Lambeth to ensure clean-up after the event is properly carried out and that disruption is kept to a minimum.

In the longer term we are working to ensure that the park properly reaps the benefits of such, and all events, so that there can be proper investment in Brockwell as a space for all the community to enjoy. If there is ever anything to do with the park that you want to raise please get in touch with us