You may have been following the various court cases that are now being pursued against Lambeth in recent weeks.

Following judgment on the West Dulwich Action Group case reported in our last newsletter, they had a further setback with a ruling in the Protect Brockwell Park case about the use of the park for music festivals. The argument centred on the days allowed for areas of the park to be closed to the public.

Permitted Development rules allow for 28 days of use with associated works per year without planning permission, and Lambeth appear to have rushed through the permit to allow events to take place, and failed to add the days needed for construction and dismantling of the infrastructure required. Protect Brockwell Park calculated that this took the days of closure to 37. This would have needed a full planning application, including public consultation, before approval could be granted. The judge found for the Protest Group.

Undeterred, Lambeth went ahead after getting a full planning permission for the Country Show and pushing through a Certificate of Lawfulness just before the first event opened. All this ignited a hotly-polarised debate locally and elsewhere too: the Financial Times calculated a total of 140 days this year has been allocated to such festivals in London. Other events in London and elsewhere have been cancelled, often because they are becoming too expensive to run.

Lambeth passed control of some events (Field Day & Mighty Hoopla, as well as the  Country Show) to a group of promoters called Superstruct (owned by a parent company, KKK) for large sums of money, which they claim will go back into the community. It emerged that this company has links to Israel, which led a headline act, the rappers Kneecap, to withdraw.

Among principal objections were the damage done to the park, which is a much-loved and used local amenity, and that organisers should have cleared up more quickly to stay within their limits. The drought has not helped, but anyone walking through the park must feel saddened at its state. The consensus seems to be London-wide, that there should be more consultation with local residents about the events themselves, the amounts raised and where this is spent.

Whatever the arguments for and against, it seems Lambeth should think hard about consulting and listening to their residents. They seem either oblivious to, or careless of, our worries, experience and needs when planning changes to our neighbourhoods.

Update

The Protect Brockwell Park group have launched their third legal challenge against Lambeth's decision to allow Brockwell Live events to take place in May and June.

We have also learned that Lambeth are going to remove the large playground sand pit at Brockwell Park because the sand clogs the drains, and a petition has been started. (Now, though, they are going to add a stand pipe so that sand can be washed off in the appropriate place).