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.’