24 May 2025, 14:14 | Updated: 27 May 2025, 18:36

By Lucy Akrill

So it’s 10 days since the massive steel walls were erected and the HGVs moved in….the Brockwell Live festivals are kicking off....

I am listening to the sound checks as I write this on Friday 23 May, yet last Friday, exactly a week ago, I was sitting in the Royal Courts of Justice hearing a Judge announce that Brockwell Live does not have lawful planning permission to go ahead. It’s too long, he said.

It took a high court judge to tell them this simple fact. We’d been telling them since last summer. These are too big to be rubber stamped.

They need to get proper planning permission. That’s all we asked for – proper scrutiny and consultation. They ignored us. Thousands of their concerned residents, signing petitions, writing letters, attending meetings, writing to MPs.

Attending consultations that then turned out to not be consultations after all. Because, sorry, we are just “residents”. Ordinary park users. Not stake holders of the park. We don’t have a voice. As for the ‘real’ stake holders – Brockwell Park Community Partners - they said NO to the planned events too. Lambeth Council ignored them too.........

© LBC