Local residents in Lambeth have failed in their latest attempt to block the festivals that are due to take place in the London borough’s Brockwell Park later this month. A high court judge has dismissed a legal challenge to the local council’s decision to grant those events planning permission.
Lawyers working for campaign group Protect Brockwell Park said that Lambeth Council “improperly granted” permission for the series of events that operate under the banner Brockwell Live. In particular, councillors had “misread planning policy” by treating commercial music festivals as “outdoor recreation on protected open land”.
According to MyLondon, Richard Harwood KC, speaking for the local residents, said the provision covering “outdoor recreation” in planning policy “is concerned with non-sport activities, such as walking, sitting out and open-air games - it does not include a concert, whether the activities of professional musicians or spectators”.
However, Judge Robert Jay disagreed, in part relying on the Oxford English Dictionary definition of ‘recreation’, which defines it as a “pastime which is pursued for the pleasure or interest it provides”. And at least some of the people attending Field Day, Cross The Tracks, City Splash and Mighty Hoopla later this month will presumably be pursuing some sort of pleasure, or at least some sort of interest.
Despite failing to force a full review in court of Lambeth Council’s planning decision over the festivals, the Protect Brockwell Park group say their legal action was nevertheless worthwhile. “Although we have not met the very high bar for proving procedural failure”, they explain in a statement, “by taking this action we have made huge steps forward in protecting the park”.
That’s because the council “can no longer grant permission without taking proper account of the damage and impact on the park from events in previous and future years”, and “has been forced to disclose important information about income from the events and expenditure on the park”. The campaign group are also now “better able to ensure planning conditions are complied with”.
That said, campaigners would obviously prefer it if the Brockwell Live festivals were not going ahead, this year or in the future. “We believe it is possible to hold popular and sustainable events in the park”, their statement continues, “but ultimately, planning law allows elected councillors to make almost any decision they like”.
With that in mind, any future action taken by local residents may need to be political more than legal. If campaigners believe the local authority’s planning decisions to be “damaging and unfair”, then “our best defence is through the ballot box”. A timely remark given council elections are taking place in the London borough of Lambeth today.
The staging of music festivals in London’s parks has caused controversy in various parts of the capital, as joyless NIMBYs or rightfully concerned locals (depending on your viewpoint) loudly oppose the fencing off of public spaces during the summer months for commercial ticketed music events.
Lambeth Council previously utilised powers provided by the Town And Country Planning Act to green light the Brockwell Live festivals without going through a full planning permission process.
Last year Protect Brockwell Park successfully challenged that fastback approach through the courts after crowd-funding legal action, ultimately resulting in the local authority committing to apply full planning scrutiny in 2026. It then did that and granted the 2026 festivals planning permission in February. Which prompted another round of crowd-funding and legal action by the campaign group.
According to Estate Gazette, Richard Hardwood KC told the court that that planning decision was unlawful. In addition to his argument that councillors had misread planning policy regarding the term “recreation”, the lawyer said Lambeth Council had made a number of other errors when granting the festivals planning permission.
The council, he said, had “failed to meet its legal obligations on biodiversity”, while “promised ecological measures, including bird boxes and habitat features, were neither funded nor secured”, and Historic England’s “concerns about cumulative damage to the park were kept from the public and never put to the planning committee”.
However, Sasha White KC, representing Lambeth Council, denied that her client had made any legal or procedural errors, while adding that “during the events the rest of the park will be retained as public open space, therefore leaving 74% of the park open to the public throughout this period”.
Meanwhile, she said, assessments suggested no “unacceptable harm” would arise from the festivals, plus nine individual benefits of allowing the events to go ahead had been identified.
Brockwell Live 2026 will now kick off on 23 May with this year’s Field Day.