Ann Kingsbury speech to Lambeth Scrutiny Committee

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.

Lambeth Scrutiny Committee examines events in Parks

Summary:

  • First, reconsider the use of Lambeth’s precious parks as mere assets to sweat, rather than an oasis to protect for future generations
  • Second, if you make promises to local people and local groups, please keep them.

At 7pm on Wednesday 27 September 2023, the first item on the agenda of Lambeth Council’s important Scrutiny Committee was the topic of events in parks. Brockwell Park and Clapham Common were both represented, with excellent speeches. Councillors listened with care and asked intelligent questions. There was no evidence of any shift in opinion away from supporting events in parks: they make too much money for a cash-strapped council.

Ann Kingsbury, chair of Brockwell Park Community Partners, made a stirring speech saying a Victorian park such as Brockwell could not sustain the weight of gigantic vehicles, while Lambeth’s events team lacked the resources to monitor events properly. She said it was not just the visible damage that was of concern, but the hidden damage of compaction underground from all the vehicle movements.

Here is the full text of the speech by the FOBP chair:

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Peter Bradley, chair of the Friends of Brockwell Park. I thank you for this chance to give you the views of the Friends on paid events in Brockwell Park. My colleague Michael Boyle has already communicated to councillors his opinions, which we share.

First, a difference of philosophy: nowhere in the voluminous documentation prepared for this meeting is there any questioning of whether the Council should be holding events in Parks at all. We do question that and see it as a betrayal of your duty of care to our parks, just for financial gain. We urge you to rethink.

Second, there is no genuine consultation of local people about events in parks. They are just imposed on us.

Third, despite numerous requests, the Council has supplied no evidence to back its claim that local traders benefit from these events. FOBP surveys repeatedly show that the majority either lose money, or the events make no difference to them.

Last, local groups such as the Friends and the Brockwell Park Community Partners made a suggestion with the potential to save the Council millions of pounds: to bring the Lambeth Country Show within the same timeframe as the May/June events, so only one wall is built, saving the Council pots of money.

The quid pro quo, promised to user groups and made in a letter to local residents, was that there would be no further major events in Brockwell Park outside the May/June timeframe. Then Pokémon Go was imposed on the Park in August. All sorts of linguistic contortions tried to pretend this was not a major event. It was a gigantic breach of faith by Lambeth Council.

It is heartbreaking to walk around Brockwell Park and see the damage caused to the grass by this summer’s major events. We even had the ridiculous sight of Brockwell Live planting seeds in June to repair the damage it caused in May, only to see those seeds ripped up in August by the wandering crowds of Pokémon Go.

Damage from the Pokémon event – some of it!

To sum up:

  • First, reconsider the use of Lambeth’s precious parks as mere assets to sweat, rather than an oasis to protect for future generations
  • Second, if you make promises to local people and local groups, please keep them.

FOBP and wild life hedge

Friends of Brockwell Park (FOBP) is pleased to contribute £2000 to the Brockwell Park wild life hedge. This a major project initiated by Lambeth council and the Brockwell Park Community Partners (BPCP). The hedge runs from the top of the park at Cressingham Gardens right down the west side to Brixton Water Lane. The benefits of the hedge include: pollination enrichment, small bird sanctuary and food provision, small mammal protection and migration route.

The FOBP contribution will go towards planting wild flower plugs along the edge of the hedge, as part of the present  renovation scheme. As well as looking good these plants will boost pollination opportunities and provide cover for small mammals. FOBP hopes to offer volunteer planting days later in the autumn and winter/spring.

Watch this space for dates!

You need to add a widget, row, or prebuilt layout before you’ll see anything here. 🙂

Hooray! Brockwell Hall closed – Restoration begins at last

The long-awaited restoration of Brockwell Hall, the jewel in the park’s crown, is finally under way. The cafe is gone but is still open nearby (see picture). 

This is the first step on the way to restoring the best rooms in the Hall for community access and use. We can look forward to exhibitions in these spaces and public hire and to a lovely new cafe opening out into Stable Yard at the back of the house. Re-opening is projected to be in summer/autumn 2024.

 

Background to the project:

The big holdup had been the lack of accommodation for the council’s parks department, who have been occupying the Hall for several years. The plan was to move them to a depot by the Norwood Lodge entrance to the Park, but the building of the new facility faced many delays. That has finally opened, the staff moving in this month, leaving the Hall empty. On Wednesday 28 June, clearing the building began, and by Friday 30 June it was almost an empty shell, waiting for the restoration team to begin work. Worryingly, there was a Lambeth pest control truck outside on the Friday …

In March 2021, the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) awarded Lambeth a grant of up to £3,300,800 towards the restoration of Brockwell Hall and related capital and revenue work streams. The grant constitutes 52% of the total estimated total costs of £6,310,943. The Council has to find the balance. The construction period is expected to last just over a year, but major projects such as this have a tendency to overrun.

The tender for the restoration works at Brockwell Hall has come in over budget, leading to parts of the project being scrapped, Brixton Buzz reports. As a result, the Council has removed the stable block and landscaping from the project to stay within budget. 

The main building will be refurbished and restored to provide multi-purpose use spaces, including exhibitions, business and community events, a café, offices for events staff, and accommodation for local volunteers. Connected to the main building, an events space will be constructed within the stable yard area, accommodating 160 people and available for hire for weddings and other events.

Brockwell Hall is 210 years old this year. It was commissioned by John Blades, creator of the Brockwell estate, and built 1811–1813, to the design of architect David Riddall Roper (1773–1855).

Intrusive Events – FOBP on BBC twice

  • Mighty Hoopla weekend just finished 3rd – 4th June 2023
  • Lambeth Country Show this weekend June 10–11
  • Pokemon Go event scheduled Friday August 4th to Sunday 6th

Events in Brockwell Park seem over the top and have received more attention than usual.

Friends of Brockwell Park chair, Peter Bradley, was in the thick of it, with two BBC interviews, one on TV one on radio.

He was on BBC London TV, broadcast both lunchtime and at 18.30, on Tuesday 6 June; and at 07.15 on BBC Radio London, on Shay Kaur-Grewel’s show, Wednesday 7 June (both available on BBC iPlayer).

In both interviews, Peter spoke of the intrusiveness of such events into the normal peaceful enjoyment of the park, by humans and wildlife. He also accused Lambeth Council of a breach of faith, with its decision to run the Pokemon major event, where it had promised that no more would be held outside the May–June timescale (see previous blog on this, FOBP Press Release).

For the BBC TV interview with Luxmy Gopal, Peter invited her and her cameraman into his flat, 13 floors up, facing the park, where the journalists could hear the noise from Mighty Hoopla first hand and commented ‘you can feel the whole room vibrating’.

Local businesses lose out.

In both interviews, Peter challenged the council’s assertion that such events brought in money for local businesses, saying that the council had no local evidence to support its assertion.  FOBP has surveyed local businesses after each event for many years, and 80% of 80+ respondents said they either lost money, or their takings stayed the same.










	

Friends of Brockwell Park objection to Pokémon Go major event in Brockwell Park

Friends of Brockwell Park (FOBP) strongly objects to the proposal to hold a three-day Pokémon Go major event in Brockwell Park this August 2023, for these reasons:

  • It constitutes a further unacceptable large-scale intrusion onto a critical public facility
  • It is in the middle of a period that had been set aside by agreement with the Council for the uninterrupted enjoyment of the facility by park users
  • It represents the unavoidable and significant detriment of that park user enjoyment both in the three days of the event, and the nine-day build-up
  • It will lead to the significant disfiguring of the park itself both in that period and long term, by vehicles and heavy machinery required to install disfiguring structures and installations and by the additional projected footfall of at least 60,000 people in three days. This will be compounded if it occurs in a period of bad weather
  • Last but not least, it is a gross breach of the undertaking Lambeth Council gave to the Brockwell Park Community Partners (BPCP) and to the FOBP that major events, including the Lambeth Country Show, would be restricted to the May–June period.

FOBP fully endorses the recent BPCP statement about the Pokémon Go event. It is fair and measured.

FOBP has also received the briefing sent to Councillors by Lambeth’s Events Team. We find this briefing unworthy of public servants:

  • First, the Events Team claims that Pokémon Go is a ‘large’, rather than a ‘major’ event. ‘A major event is defined under Lambeth’s Event Policy as having a capacity over 20,000. This event has a capacity of 9999 and is defined by the policy as a large event,’ the Events Team claims. But this is semantics from the Events Team: there are two 9999-strong sessions per day for each of the three days, making each day an actual capacity of 19,998. This is indeed a major event in Lambeth terms, and therefore a gross breach of the agreement with park user groups
  • FOBP is opposed to walled, paid-for events in Brockwell Park, but at least they verify and control the numbers attending. There is no means of controlling the numbers, or timing, of attendees of the Pokémon Go event
  • There is still no detailed plan of where it will be located in the Park
  • The amount the Park will receive from the ‘PIL’ (Park Investment Levy)—£20,000—is derisory
  • The Events Team claims ‘there are substantial independent reports showing the economic benefit that these events have brought to local areas and businesses’. FOBP challenges the Events Team to produce one such report that supports this for the traders around Brockwell Park. Councillors will be aware that repeated surveys by FOBP show that most local businesses experience worse trading at the time of major events.

FOBP chair, Peter Bradley, said: ‘Park user groups such as FOBP and BPCP, reflecting the views of their members and many local people, have strong reservations about major, paid-for events in Brockwell Park. We thought we had an agreement with Lambeth Council at least to restrict major events to the May–June period. This Pokémon Go major event, shrouded in mystery, obfuscation and numbers games, rides roughshod over that agreement. It is an act of bad faith by Lambeth Council towards park users.’

Annual ‘Dawn Chorus’ Bird Walk

This year’s bird walk, organised by the Friends of Brockwell Park and the local RSPB group, took place on Sunday 23 April. The walk was led by Czech Conroy of the local RSPB, and some 27 people joined him. We saw 35 species of birds, with the highlights being watching mistle thrush chicks being fed on their nest in the oak near the Lido, a spotted woodpecker pecking on the fallen log by the exercise kit opposite the BMX track, and a cormorant eating loads of fish in front of us on the top pond.

Here is the full list of the species observed: Graylag Goose; Canada Goose; Mute Swan; Mallard; Tufted Duck; Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon); Stock Dove; Common Wood-Pigeon; Eurasian Moorhen; Eurasian Coot; Herring Gull; Great Cormorant; Gray Heron; Great Spotted Woodpecker; Rose-ringed Parakeet; Eurasian Jay; Eurasian Magpie; Eurasian Jackdaw; Carrion Crow; Eurasian Blue Tit; Great Tit; Common Chiffchaff; Long-tailed Tit; Eurasian Blackcap; Greater Whitethroat; Eurasian Wren; European Starling; Mistle Thrush; Eurasian Blackbird; European Robin; Dunnock; House Sparrow; Common Chaffinch; European Greenfinch; European Goldfinch.

By Peter Bradley and Czech Conroy. Photography by Ian Judson

PROPOSED BOUNDARY CHANGES TO BROCKWELL PARK CONSERVATION AREA

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

Friends of Brockwell Park expresses concern over Extinction Rebellion campsite in Park

PRESS RELEASE, TUESDAY 1 SEPTEMBER 2020

Friends of Brockwell Park expresses concern over
Extinction Rebellion campsite in Park

 

The Friends of Brockwell Park (FOBP) has learned, at two days’ notice, that campaigning group Extinction Rebellion (XR) plans to use Brockwell Park, Lambeth, as a campsite for up to 200 tents for a fortnight from Bank Holiday Monday, 31 August 2020. FOBP was not consulted about the plan and does not support it. After XR used the park for a festival a year ago, XR promised it would not return to Brockwell Park.

 

The FOBP is particularly anxious about this large concentration of persons at close quarters for two weeks during the COVID-19 crisis, which could put XR campers and members of the public in contact with them, at serious risk. FOBP is worried also that XR’s lack of public liability insurance means no-one is insured, camper or member of the public, if there are any adverse events.

 

In environmental terms, to have up to 200 tents for up to a fortnight is a massive presence in the park; it will prevent enjoyment of that section of the park for two weeks by members of the public. The impact of so many tents and their occupants in one of the most ecologically sensitive parts of the park, especially if the weather is as bad as it has been, could be huge.

 

‘For XR to impose this on Brockwell Park without any public consultation, because it thinks it can get away with it, does not make it right,’ said FOBP chair, Peter Bradley. He urged XR to adopt its plan B and hold this camp on private ground and to do all in its power to honour past commitments and not pitch 200 tents in Brockwell Park for the next fortnight.