Author: Peter Bradley

Ann Kingsbury speech to Lambeth Scrutiny Committee

Posted on by Peter Bradley

Ann Kingsbury, chair of the Brockwell Park Community Partners, gave the following speech to the meeting of Lambeth Council’s Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, 27 September 2023:

The CC MAC and BP MAC are not against events in principle.

We are against events that are too big, too loud and too damaging.

Large and major events in parks always do damage. A lot of it cannot be prevented or fully rectified. It is impossible to repair all the damage that results from inconsiderate set-up or de-rig; only the worst can be dealt with.

In the case of many large events, Lambeth Landscapes does not have the resources to carry out these repairs. The need to employ outside contractors results in delay, often to the extent that restoration has to wait because the season or unsuitable weather has prevented it.

The worst damage comes from allowing events to be set up by event organisers who were inexperienced, unfamiliar with parks and under-resourced for the work—like the organisers of Pokémon Go this year. The large event providers like those who organise Brockwell Live are  more experienced and better equipped, but even they do harm because any time there is a change of subcontractors, the learning process has to start again and mistakes are made.

A major problem is the size of vehicles used during set-up and de-rig. The Victorian pathways of our parks and commons were not designed to take the axle weight of the enormous rigs that are used for large events. Both the paths and the ground are damaged. The haulage companies are usually sub-contracted, so the event organisers cannot fully control them. Often, it is not possible to time access so the necessary banksmen are available. Frequently, the drivers have no local knowledge, get lost and drive in areas where they are not supposed to be. It is common to have them driving over tree root protection areas.

None of this is easy to manage because this kind of traffic is not appropriate to our open greenspaces. Huge infrastructure building also harms the surfaces that they are set up on; they concentrate weight and footfall in defined areas.

As usual, the damage you cannot see is the most important. Grass is fortunately hard to kill. Underground though, the compaction of the soil from the weight of vehicles and infrastructure, which accumulates steadily  over time, eventually results in run-off, flooding and failure of rainwater to penetrate the soil. This process will make trees and other flora and wildlife vulnerable to our increasingly hot and dry summers, something we need to be aware of.

We should wish to limit damage where we can, but with large events dominating, it is not possible. We need to be aware that an ambitious programme of events in our green spaces will come at an unavoidable cost. Long-term, they will suffer and continue to deteriorate. This is a loss to all our communities and people for whom the local park or common is their link with the natural world.

PROPOSED BOUNDARY CHANGES TO BROCKWELL PARK CONSERVATION AREA

Posted on by Peter Bradley

Friends of Brockwell Park join other local groups to call for the inclusion of Cressingham Gardens Estate in the Brockwell Park Conservation Area.
Here is our submission that was sent to Lambeth planning in early January with the joint declaration as an appendix:

To whomever it may concern,
We, the Friends of Brockwell Park, and other major local organisations argued in July 2015 that “For the future protection of Brockwell Park, we ask that consideration be given to the recommendation by English Heritage […] that the boundaries of the Brockwell Park Conservation Area should be extended to include the Cressingham Gardens Estate.” (See Appendix 1, below.) We reiterate this position even more forcefully today. We hold strongly that there is an unanswerable case that the Conservation Area must be extended to include the estate and we are extremely disappointed that the appraisal document does not include any consideration of this possibility.

The appraisal document notes in section 2.33 that Cressingham Gardens is an “understated brick-built estate […] carefully designed in the 1970s to respond to the setting of the park.” Section 2.34 states that the “main, communal landscaped space [of the estate] adjoins one of the park entrances and is included within the conservation area,” but then affirms without further comment that “the houses themselves are not within the conservation area.” Yet this section (2.34) itself begins with the key point: “As a result of the design the estate is largely invisible in views from within the landscape.”

We, the FoBP, contend that this inspired architecture is what must be protected: the low buildings of the estate are below the tree line when viewed from the park. It is a view which could so easily be constrained by a largescale development. Conservation Area status for the estate would help to mitigate the risk in the future of intrusive over-sized buildings and an unbroken line of large residential blocks. We speak for countless lovers of Brockwell Park who enjoy the park not simply on account of its green spaces but also owing to its inviting surrounding views: the Cressingham Gardens Estate deserves to be recognised officially as being fully part of the Brockwell Park conservation area.
—
APPENDIX 1
To: David Rose, Democratic Services Officer, London Borough of Lambeth

We understand that a report on options for the redevelopment of the Cressingham Gardens Estate will be presented to Cabinet on 13th July 2015.

As representatives of four local organisations who are committed to protect Brockwell Park and the vital amenity it provides for local communities, we request that the following statement be included with the papers circulated to members in advance of the Cabinet meeting.

Cabinet Meeting 13th July 2015: Agenda item: Building the Homes We Need to House the People of Lambeth – estate regeneration update.

The Cressingham Gardens Estate occupies a sensitive position on the highest point on the western boundary of Brockwell Park. The low rise buildings which comprise the estate and their orientation, at right angles to (rather than facing) the park boundary, ensure that the park’s skyline is not dominated by buildings and the proximity of urban development. Moreover, the green open spaces within the estate allow park users who approach the park from Tulse Hill to enjoy open, safe and inviting access to the park as they approach Cressingham Gate. We are concerned that these features should be preserved in any future development.

Therefore, if Cabinet is minded to agree to further work on any proposal to regenerate the estate, we request that Cabinet requires that work to include a full review of the impact of any proposed development on the amenity of the park and the enjoyment of users, including (but not exclusively) the views from the park towards the estate and access through the estate to the park and that the outcome of that consideration and review form part of the brief given to the project architects.

For the future protection of Brockwell Park, we ask that consideration be given to the recommendation by English Heritage in January 2014 that the boundaries of the Brockwell Park Conservation Area should be extended to include the Cressingham Gardens Estate.
We further request that Cabinet ensures that all future consultations about the regeneration of the estate include park users and local amenity groups, including the signatories to this statement.

This request is submitted by representatives from the following local organisations with an interest in the amenity and protection of Brockwell Park:
The Friends of Brockwell Park
The Brockwell Park Community Partners
The Herne Hill Society
The Brixton Society

Lambeth Council scheme for 46 days of major events in 2021: Friends of Brockwell Park outraged at plans to exclude local people from park

Posted on by Peter Bradley

The London Borough of Lambeth (LBL) has just announced that it plans to close off significant parts of Brockwell Park for 46 days in 2021, to hold three major events. The Friends of Brockwell Park (FOBP) says the plans are turning Brockwell Park into a venue for making money, ignoring its increasingly important role, as a haven for the physical and mental health of local people. The adverse impact of the setup for the events and of 320,000 extra people on the park’s wildlife, ecology and physical infrastructure, especially if it rains, would be significant, says FOBP.

 

Here are the detailed LBL proposals (all dates are COVID-dependent, naturally):

  • Summer Events Series 2021 (including Mighty Hoopla): 26 days in park, 6 major event days, 150,000 visitors, June
  • Lambeth Country Show (LCS): 14 days in park, 2 major event days, 120,000 visitors, July
  • Climate Live: 6 days in park, 1 major event day, spring or autumn, 50,000 visitors
  • TOTAL: 46 days in park overall, 9 major event days, 320,000 visitors

 

In the pandemic, Brockwell Park has never been so busy, with thousands of people coming to it daily for their wellbeing. Young, old, the fragile and vulnerable, walkers, runners, parents with young children: all are showing they want the park to be a haven, yet Lambeth Council proposes to shut swathes of the park to them all for two-thirds of June and July 2021—the height of summer.

 

The council’s new Events Strategy 2020–2025 is of serious concern to the Friends. The previous strategy limited the number of major events in Brockwell Park to eight. Following action from FOBP, other park organisations, and the local community, we were given to understand there would be fewer major events. However, the new strategy sets no limits, as instanced by LBL’s proposal of nine major event days in Brockwell Park for 2021. ‘We negotiated in good faith,’ said FOBP chair, Peter Bradley, who personally attended the council’s Scrutiny Committee on Events, ‘but Lambeth Council has acted in bad faith. It has gone backwards on events. We were deceived.’

 

In addition to major walled events, it is proposed that multiple ‘non-grassed, hard-standing’ areas across parks should now also be made available for ‘smaller events’. Brockwell Park already hosts many events, and the Friends feel it shouldn’t have to host more.

 

As two FOBP surveys (2018 and 2019) have shown, these major events act as a blight on the majority of local business in Herne Hill : most experience a fall in revenue on major event days.

 

‘Parks were set up primarily for people’s physical and mental health,’ said FOBP chair, Peter Bradley. ‘These proposals are monetising every aspect of a precious place that people hold essential to their wellbeing in the pandemic and beyond. The council is taking the public realm and making it private. This is not our vision for the future of Brockwell Park. We call on councillors to reject these events.’

 

FOBP is asking people to contact their local councillors by 8 December 2020 regarding overuse of the park by major events. To get their councillors’ details, people should put their postcode into: www.writetothem.com. People are also asked to copy in the FOBP, info@brockwellpark.com, and the senior LBL officer in charge, Claire Horan: choran@lambeth.gov.uk