Residents call to protect borough’s green spaces after Brockwell Park festival fiasco – South London News

Residents are calling on their council to protect their neighbourhood’s green spaces after a series of events festivals and heavy rains they saw Brockwell Park turned into a mud bath.

Brockwell Live hosted four festivals in Brixton Park over the last bank holiday weekend – Project 6, Wide Awake, Cross The Tracks and City Splash – and it had to be free, family-friendly hosting Brockwell Bounce Last Wednesday.

But heavy rain saw the pitch at Brockwell Park become choppy over the weekend of events, leading to the cancellation Brockwell Bounce. A new event is being organized during the summer school holidays, Lambeth Council said.

Rebecca Tamás, 35, from Brixton Hill said: “Music festivals are great events but they shouldn’t come at the expense of precious space in our public parks.

“As the serious mud issues and the cancellation of the free kids’ event have shown, huge events and the health of the park environment just don’t go together.

“If Lambeth really wants to look after the interests of its residents, it should reconsider holding so many large festivals in the delicate ecosystem and shared common space that is Brockwell Park.”

A Brockwell Live spokesman said it had implemented “additional soil protection” before Mighty Hoopla festival that took place last weekend and Lambeth Country Showwhich is to take place this weekend.

Images posted on social media showed signs throughout the festival warning of inclement conditions and recommending “appropriate footwear”.

A spokesman for the events company said crews laid wood chips and installed 20,000 square meters of additional materials on site, including at entrances and stages.

Pete Elliot, 55, Green Party candidate for Dulwich and West Norwood, said: “I want to see our parks used for cultural and creative events, but the events have to be appropriate to the size of the park.

“Inner-city parks are the gardens for those who live nearby in apartments and provide multiple health benefits to residents in areas where the air quality is not great.

“Fencing huge areas of Brockwell Park for weeks at the busiest time of the year is not right or fair.

“Now residents and groups will lose out again this summer.”

Brockwell Live apologized for the disruption caused and said the company would fund the restoration of the park, with the aim of returning most of the site to the community “as soon as possible”.

Lambeth Council said they have an agreement where all repairs to the park are paid for by Brockwell Liveadding that the local authority invests £500,000 a year in maintaining the park.

Looking at plans for Lambeth Country Show this weekend the local authority said the site is being “assessed daily” and the council’s parks team is working with an independent expert firm to ensure the park is restored to its best condition.

A council spokesman said: “We really appreciate the award-winning Brockwell Park, as well as Lambeth’s other 70 parks and open spaces. We spend £500,000 a year on maintenance and improvements to Brockwell Park, including planting dozens of extra trees during the winter planting season.

“We have moved the events from Brockwell Park to June so the whole park is open during the summer school holidays. Hosting the extra events helps create an exciting cultural offer for the borough, means we can afford to keep the popular Lambeth Country Show free, and this year our events partnership will also secure over £100,000 for community projects.”

Top image: Brockwell Park festival site last year / Rebecca Tamás (Images: Robert Firth / Rebecca Tamás)

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