PRESS RELEASE, TUESDAY 1 SEPTEMBER 2020
Friends of Brockwell Park expresses concern over
Extinction Rebellion campsite in Park
The Friends of Brockwell Park (FOBP) has learned, at two days’ notice, that campaigning group Extinction Rebellion (XR) plans to use Brockwell Park, Lambeth, as a campsite for up to 200 tents for a fortnight from Bank Holiday Monday, 31 August 2020. FOBP was not consulted about the plan and does not support it. After XR used the park for a festival a year ago, XR promised it would not return to Brockwell Park.
The FOBP is particularly anxious about this large concentration of persons at close quarters for two weeks during the COVID-19 crisis, which could put XR campers and members of the public in contact with them, at serious risk. FOBP is worried also that XR’s lack of public liability insurance means no-one is insured, camper or member of the public, if there are any adverse events.
In environmental terms, to have up to 200 tents for up to a fortnight is a massive presence in the park; it will prevent enjoyment of that section of the park for two weeks by members of the public. The impact of so many tents and their occupants in one of the most ecologically sensitive parts of the park, especially if the weather is as bad as it has been, could be huge.
‘For XR to impose this on Brockwell Park without any public consultation, because it thinks it can get away with it, does not make it right,’ said FOBP chair, Peter Bradley. He urged XR to adopt its plan B and hold this camp on private ground and to do all in its power to honour past commitments and not pitch 200 tents in Brockwell Park for the next fortnight.