Major events

Our position is that the council is overusing the park for major events. They have grown in size and cut off much of the park to local residents for many weeks over the summer. 

We have made a number of suggestions over the years including asking that the council stop renting out the park for commercial gain/profit but instead the major events have just got bigger.

Public parks were conceived as being public - for the people, not for private hire. Austerity has meant that more and more green spaces are now hired out as business spaces. This creeping privatisation, in our view, goes against the park’s purpose of providing healthy green spaces as a respite against the noise and pollution of the city.

There is a growing movement against this creeping commercialisation and the lack of transparency that comes with it. Other Friends groups are also working on trying to cap this development including Brockwell Park, Clapham Common and Victoria Park. You can read the latest ruling of a judge against the number of days exceeding the licence agreement held in trust by Lambeth Council.