Category: lambeth Council

Press Release – Views on Tree Felling

Posted on by Peter Bradley

Some 44 trees in Brockwell Park are due to be felled or substantially reduced. Each has a notice about the works. Lambeth chose to initiate this process without any consultation or proper advanced notice.

The Friends of Brockwell Park (FOBP) has two experienced tree volunteers who guide the committee on tree policy. FOBP believes Lambeth’s Tree Team has made correct decisions about the necessary work.

Normally, such works are banned during the bird nesting season. It is unclear why Lambeth has chosen to ignore this requirement or whether it will be breaking the law.

Normally, a programme such as this would be implemented over a number of months. Lambeth is accelerating the works because more than 30,000 people a day are expected at this summer’s major events. The FOBP has always opposed large events in the park and especially those taking place behind high fencing. These events damage the park and restrict access to local people and children, many of whom depend on Brockwell Park for its open green space.

On balance, the decisions about the scope of works to each affected tree appear to be sound. However, the timing is unfortunate. Lambeth has created alarm and significant concern by its lack of consultation and lack of advance communication. Some local people say every tree should be ‘saved’. It is always sad to see trees felled, but it is sometimes necessary. We believe the park needs a mixture of healthy growing trees and those left to provide wildlife habitats.

The FOBP has run a donor tree planting programme in Brockwell Park for decades, co-ordinating with the Council and its Tree Team. Last year, 24 new trees were donated and planted. The same is planned for 2024. In this way, the park is refreshed and rejuvenated and the loss of old or diseased trees is mitigated. Find out more about this programme on our website: www.brockwellpark.com

Support the park and find out more about our tree donor programme by joining the Friends of Brockwell Park – go to www.brockwellpark.com.

POTENTIAL IMPACT ON VIEWS TO AND FROM BROCKWELL PARK BY NEW DEVELOPMENT

Posted on by Antonia Gross

FOBP are concerned about the negative impact of the new Ropers Walk development and submitted the following comment to Lambeth planning in early January

 

Trinity Rise Planning Application (Ref: 20/02406/RG3)

We, the Friends of Brockwell Park, urge the Council to reject this application owing to its impact on Brockwell Park: a key visual amenity will suffer, with negative impacts on the views / sightlines from the park.

Brockwell Park is a Conservation Area: one of the greatest risks to the character of this area comes from potential developments around its perimeter. The planned redevelopment of Ropers Walk, with replacement of low-rise properties with taller buildings, would have a negative effect on the view from the park to the South and West. It is important, we feel, to highlight the views from SW to NW as this perspective is defined by low-storey invisible buildings, views of Trinity Rise church, and the direction in which thousands of people enjoy the sunset from within the park all year around.

Although Ropers Walk is not on the boundary with the park the replacement of 2/3 storey blocks with a single block 4 storeys high will dominate the skyline from Brockwell Park. The replacement block would be visible and intrusive when viewed from the park with a larger footprint, being built over a green open space and extending right up to the flank wall of the neighbouring block. Also it is planned to remove the mature English Oak, incorrectly identified in the planning application as a Turkey Oak, which at present helps to screen the existing block. Another significant loss would be the removal of the Lime tree on Trinity Rise. The “soft” boundary of Cressingham Gardens Estate with Brockwell Park with low rise buildings and its own open spaces would be lost. Any redevelopment plans must take into account detrimental effects on Brockwell Park as this is a Conservation Area.

We fear that this application sets a precedent for the “regeneration” of this estate, with taller buildings visible above the treeline and a significant impact on views from the park.

Lambeth Council scheme for 46 days of major events in 2021: Friends of Brockwell Park outraged at plans to exclude local people from park

Posted on by Peter Bradley

The London Borough of Lambeth (LBL) has just announced that it plans to close off significant parts of Brockwell Park for 46 days in 2021, to hold three major events. The Friends of Brockwell Park (FOBP) says the plans are turning Brockwell Park into a venue for making money, ignoring its increasingly important role, as a haven for the physical and mental health of local people. The adverse impact of the setup for the events and of 320,000 extra people on the park’s wildlife, ecology and physical infrastructure, especially if it rains, would be significant, says FOBP.

 

Here are the detailed LBL proposals (all dates are COVID-dependent, naturally):

  • Summer Events Series 2021 (including Mighty Hoopla): 26 days in park, 6 major event days, 150,000 visitors, June
  • Lambeth Country Show (LCS): 14 days in park, 2 major event days, 120,000 visitors, July
  • Climate Live: 6 days in park, 1 major event day, spring or autumn, 50,000 visitors
  • TOTAL: 46 days in park overall, 9 major event days, 320,000 visitors

 

In the pandemic, Brockwell Park has never been so busy, with thousands of people coming to it daily for their wellbeing. Young, old, the fragile and vulnerable, walkers, runners, parents with young children: all are showing they want the park to be a haven, yet Lambeth Council proposes to shut swathes of the park to them all for two-thirds of June and July 2021—the height of summer.

 

The council’s new Events Strategy 2020–2025 is of serious concern to the Friends. The previous strategy limited the number of major events in Brockwell Park to eight. Following action from FOBP, other park organisations, and the local community, we were given to understand there would be fewer major events. However, the new strategy sets no limits, as instanced by LBL’s proposal of nine major event days in Brockwell Park for 2021. ‘We negotiated in good faith,’ said FOBP chair, Peter Bradley, who personally attended the council’s Scrutiny Committee on Events, ‘but Lambeth Council has acted in bad faith. It has gone backwards on events. We were deceived.’

 

In addition to major walled events, it is proposed that multiple ‘non-grassed, hard-standing’ areas across parks should now also be made available for ‘smaller events’. Brockwell Park already hosts many events, and the Friends feel it shouldn’t have to host more.

 

As two FOBP surveys (2018 and 2019) have shown, these major events act as a blight on the majority of local business in Herne Hill : most experience a fall in revenue on major event days.

 

‘Parks were set up primarily for people’s physical and mental health,’ said FOBP chair, Peter Bradley. ‘These proposals are monetising every aspect of a precious place that people hold essential to their wellbeing in the pandemic and beyond. The council is taking the public realm and making it private. This is not our vision for the future of Brockwell Park. We call on councillors to reject these events.’

 

FOBP is asking people to contact their local councillors by 8 December 2020 regarding overuse of the park by major events. To get their councillors’ details, people should put their postcode into: www.writetothem.com. People are also asked to copy in the FOBP, info@brockwellpark.com, and the senior LBL officer in charge, Claire Horan: choran@lambeth.gov.uk