7MAR26
🔊 On Tuesday 24th Feb, the Council unanimously granted planning permission for the 2026 commercial events in the park.
🌳 The approval was based on the premise that the impacts of these events are “temporary and reversible.” That is simply not borne out by the evidence. Expert reports clearly demonstrate significant cumulative damage to the park’s trees and soil. Protect Brockwell Park is taking legal advice.
We now need your help.
Here's why:
As well as planning permission the organisers need an event permit for Brockwell Live 2026. Ward councillors have til 19 March to comment. Please write to your councillors to ask them to object to these unsustainable events.
See the reports we commissioned here:
Independent Arboriculture Report
Find details on your ward councillors here .
‼️ High Court rules Lambeth's Brockwell Live 2025 decisions unlawful. Again.‼️
🌳 Just one week after giving planning permission for Brockwell Live 2026, Lambeth Council has conceded a further High Court challenge. Yesterday, the Court confirmed that the Council’s final attempt to approve the 2025 events was unlawful, establishing for a second time that Brockwell Live 2025 was held without lawful planning permission.
🌳 The Council’s original 2025 approval had already been quashed by the High Court as irrational. This latest ruling overturns its second attempt.
🌳 The Court also declared that Lambeth failed to properly direct itself in its role as trustee of Brockwell Park, including in relation to its own rules that the event must be cancelled if planning permission is not in place.
🌳 Taxpayers now face up to £35,000 more in legal costs – on top of the six-figure sums already reported earlier this year.
🌳 Serious questions remain about how Lambeth is managing Brockwell Park and protecting public green space.
🌳 Protect Brockwell Park is taking legal advice.
- Our planning consultant's formal objection on PBP's behalf to the commercial events planning application:
* Objection - Protect Brockwell Park
- An objection by a member of our team:
- The Friends of Brockwell Park and their Objection can be found here:
*
Home - Friends of Brockwell Park
- Recent article in Brixton Buzz: 'Opinion piece: What should we ask of a public park? Large festivals and Protect Brockwell Park'
Protect Brockwell Park (PBP) is calling out Lambeth Council's misleading narrative around the Brockwell Live festivals.
We are not anti-festival: we support well-run, inclusive events. But these large-scale, high-impact commercial festivals are damaging Brockwell Park's ecology, heritage, and community value. The park is being overused and under-protected.
The Council cites a promoter-funded desk study to claim "no environmental damage." This report involved no site visits or baseline surveys, and fails to assess the cumulative harm. Meanwhile, residents see the real impact: destroyed grasslands, damaged trees, compacted soil, and degraded heritage paths.
Claims that festivals boost local business are also questionable. Many traders report reduced footfall and disrupted operations during event periods.
We urge Lambeth to rethink its approach. Brockwell Park is a public green space, not a commercial venue. The model must change before it's too late.
#ProtectBrockwellPark #BrockwellLive #LambethCouncil #UrbanGreenspace #StopTheDamage #GreenSpacesMatter
'No Walls' Action in Brockwell Park
PBP launched a Judicial Review [wikipedia] against the council. The hearing was on Thursday 15 May and the judgment handed down the following day: High Court win for Protect Brockwell Park!
Lambeth has lost the legal challenge. The High Court found Lambeth Council acted unlawfully and irrationally in issuing the planning certificate that the Council relied on to justify Brockwell Live as lawful in planning terms, has been quashed.
Update Following Our High Court Win
We wanted to share an update, along with more context on the recent legal developments.
First and foremost, we regret that legal action became necessary. Unfortunately, the applicants and Lambeth Council created a binary situation with no room for compromise. They submitted applications inappropriately late, despite knowing the risks this would introduce, as has happened in previous years.
We've been trying to engage with Lambeth and Brockwell Live since last October. Unfortunately, claimants like us can't apply to court until Lambeth makes a key decision, and that is why everything has happened so close to the festival start date. Their repeated use of last-minute tactics has allowed these large-scale events to close off and damage the delicate ecosystem of a heritage park, without proper scrutiny. We have consistently called on the Council to secure full planning permission for all events, supported by robust environmental and community impact assessments, but were ignored on multiple occasions.
Now the High Court has ruled in our favour, we hope Lambeth Council will now choose to act lawfully and fairly, and honour their responsibility to hold the park in trust for the local community. We remain committed to protecting Brockwell Park to ensure that any future events bring genuine benefits to local people. We are not anti-events. On the contrary, we hope Lambeth will engage with us constructively to ensure all events are sustainable and proportionate.
Protect Brockwell Park is only on Brevo, Instagram and Whatsapp. We are not on X/Twitter, and are not associated with any other Brockwell Park organisation / individual that has their own opinions.