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The Friends of Clapham Common are urging residents to respond to the formal consultation relating to the proposal by Lambeth Borough Council to allow Festival Republic to put on major events on Clapham Common. The deadline for submissions is 6 January 2023.
Representations should be sent to the following email, referencing "Clapham Common Festival Republic 2024": commonlandcasework@planninginspectorate.gov.uk.
If 450 objections are received, the application will be subject to a Public Inquiry.
Many of you will remember last year’s campaign run by the Friends of Clapham Common against Lambeth Council’s planning application to fence off 20 acres of Clapham Common with over 1km of solid steel fencing for 18 days, all in order to host an event by Festival Republic of 4 days with 40,000 visitors each day. The Friends’ campaign was successful and, as a result, Festival Republic will not be staging major events in 2023. However, Lambeth Council is now applying for a return of Festival Republic to the Common during the summer of 2024.
Last year, as Wandsworth Councillors, we received a record number of complaints from our residents about the excessive noise from the events, as well as the environmental damage to the Common that resulted from this intensive use. In many areas on the Common, even today, the grass still hasn’t recovered. We wrote to Lambeth Council calling for a stop to these large-scale, environmentally damaging events and better consultation with local residents on any future proposed events. The then-Leader of Wandsworth Council, Ravi Govindia, also wrote to the Leader of Lambeth Council. Disappointingly, Lambeth Council did not reply to any of us.
Clapham Common is one of our community’s treasured open green spaces, enjoyed by residents of both Lambeth and Wandsworth boroughs. We don’t object to the Common being home to a variety of uses by different parts of the community, including diverse and appropriately-scaled events and activities throughout the year. Our concern has always been that these oversized events authorised by Lambeth Council in previous years come at too high a cost to the Common and do not deliver sufficient benefits to the local community. In 2021, Lambeth Council claimed that the events would raise £300,000, but said that only £63,000 would be reinvested in the Common. In addition, the local economy saw little benefit from the events as festival goers bought food and drinks from festival stalls rather than local businesses.
Thanks to the campaigning efforts of the Friends, a Public Inquiry into Lambeth’s practices was to be held last year. However, that Inquiry was cancelled when Lambeth failed to submit its paperwork to the Planning Inspectorate before the deadline. The Friends believe this was a deliberate move to avoid the necessary scrutiny to determine whether these major events actually serve the public interest or just Lambeth Council’s financial interests. To secure a fresh Public Inquiry, 450 objections to Lambeth’s proposals need to be submitted.
The Friends are urging people to put forward the following arguments:
- This event is too large and encloses a whopping 20 acres of common land behind 3.40m steel-shield fencing for up to four weeks during the summer holidays, which is a time of maximum need for families and the general public.
- It cuts across public pathways and encroaches across common land that prevents rights of access and causes huge inconvenience to the community - particularly those with disabilities.
- It removes the largest open area of the Common for public use during the summer months.
- It is too noisy and disruptive with sound levels set higher than the national average.
- These mega-events involve widespread use of alcohol and drugs, which leads to antisocial behaviour. This results in innumerable complaints from local residents who find this behaviour oppressive and intimidating.
- Ticket prices are so expensive that they exclude certain demographics and large numbers of local people are completely shut out - a situation only exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis.
- This is not local event for local people - it is a nationally advertised event.
- The current contract grants exclusive music rights on the Common to Festival Republic, unfairly prohibiting other event companies from staging their own smaller music events for the local community.
- There is no local data to support the so-called ‘business case’, widely touted to bring economic benefits to local businesses.
- The vast majority of monies raised are spent on other parts of Lambeth and are not used to benefit the Common.
- This has the potential to destroy the very fabric of the common as evidenced by the ‘once-in-a-lifetime reinstatement’ of the whole site in 2020.
- ...Add any objections that are important to you.
You can also find out more about the work of the Friends of Clapham Common at https://claphamcommon.net/.
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