Brockwell Park is beginning to look its beautiful Spring green self, but in just a few weeks the annual cycle of damage will have started again as the giant fences go up to privatise, exploit and damage a precious public space during the most precious and popular time of year.
This challenge is about ensuring events are run lawfully, in a way that protects the park and the community. We are not against all events, but the current model - large-scale, repeated commercial use with long enclosures - is not sustainable.
But Lambeth is still treating Brockwell Park like a commercial festival venue instead of protected public open space, glossing over the loss of access and ecological harm, it has kept key information from the public and councillors, and forgotten its basic duty to look after the park for local people rather than profit from it.
We have already successfully taken Lambeth to court twice. Our 2025 judicial reviews exposed a deeply troubling pattern: even after legal defeat, Lambeth continues to push through flawed decisions, ignoring the law, the evidence and the impacts.
Now it is doing it again.
Last year, Lambeth relied on permitted development rights unlawfully twice, and lost twice.
This year, that meant Brockwell Live had to seek planning permission for their commercial events, but Lambeth has gone ahead and granted that permission for Brockwell Live 2026 on a significantly flawed basis.
And this year, there is not even the fig-leaf of the free Lambeth Country Show that they’ve previously used to justify this destructive commercial model, Lambeth cancelled that.
But instead of taking the opportunity to review this model and enter into meaningful dialogue, Lambeth continues to allow harmful exploitation of Brockwell Park.
So again, we have been left with no other effective option for making a meaningful difference.
This is why we are bringing a third legal challenge, to challenge that decision. And we have received legal advice that we have a strong case.
We have not reached this point lightly. We do not want to stop the right events in Brockwell Park being held in the right way. We are not against events, but they need to be held in a sustainable way, with a different model that respects the park, its legal protections, and the people who rely on it.
Brockwell Park is precious and protected public parkland, Metropolitan Open Land and a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation - not a private festival site.
Proper consideration of the loss of access and long-term damage to trees and wildlife - which is required by planning law - should encourage the Council to change its approach to Brockwell Live and not simply rubber stamp whatever the promoters want to do.
Lambeth has granted planning permission after it has used flawed reasoning, missing evidence and vague environmental promises, while keeping key information hidden from the public and planning councillors, and significantly failing to address Metropolitan Open Land protections and cumulative year-on-year impacts.
It is treating a large, commercial, ticketed festival as if it were an ordinary use of a precious public park, downplaying the harm of fencing off and intensively exploiting a huge part of Brockwell Park, and relying on wildlife and biodiversity promises that were not properly nailed down.
Councillors and residents were not given the full picture to comment on beforehand, because key reports, specialist comments and the inappropriate basis for claimed economic benefits were not properly provided.
On top of that, some of the supposed “public benefits” should never have been counted in a planning decision at all.
In a nutshell, the permission was granted on a flawed and misleading basis and should be overturned.
But this case is about more than one year of events. It is about changing the model.
Public parks cannot sustain being treated as commercial event sites first and parks second. Brockwell Park is repeatedly being treated as a source of income, not a public trust. Lambeth holds it for local people, not to make money from commercial enclosure. It cannot fence off parkland, let private firms damage it and pocket the revenue, and call that a public benefit.
We are asking you to help us hold Lambeth to the law, and to help secure a more sustainable future for events in Brockwell Park.
Please donate if you can, and support the park you love.
See our Crowdjustice Funding page here.
Are PBP against events in Brockwell Park?
No. This campaign is not about opposing events in principle. Parks have always hosted a range of activities, including organised events, and that is part of their role as public spaces.
We also want to be clear that we have nothing against any of the individual commercial events themselves. The issue is not what the events are, but the impact of this model in this particular setting. Nor do we believe that any individual event is existentially dependent on being held in Brockwell Park in their current form.
What we are challenging is the current model of large-scale, repeated commercial events that take over significant areas of the park for extended periods and leave a lasting impact on access, grass, trees and ecology. In practice, that means opposing the specific events currently proposed, because they are of a scale, frequency and footprint that is not compatible with the park's status as protected public open space.
It is sometimes suggested that the answer is simply to scale these events down. But these events are what they are. They are designed and financed as large commercial operations, and materially reducing their size, duration or intensity would not be a minor adjustment - it would result in fundamentally different events. Our position is not about redesigning individual festivals. It is about whether Brockwell Park should be used in this way at all, at this scale and frequency, and with these impacts.
That does not mean there is only one alternative. There are many ways in which parks can host events that are lower impact, shorter in duration, and more closely aligned with their role as public spaces. But those are different models, not small adjustments to the current one.
And what about the Lambeth Country Show?
For many of us in the group, the Lambeth Country Show has been a highlight of the year, and we would support its return. It has long been a valued community event.
But many people felt that in recent years it became too large and too commercial. In doing so, it lost some of what made it distinctive and locally rooted.
A future version that is more clearly centred on the community, and on the character of the park itself, would be widely welcomed.
18APR26
PBP launches 3rd Judicial Review action against Lambeth's flawed grant of planning permission.
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.
• 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.