The historic park in Hounslow will host 19 days of events per year
Residents opposed to large-scale events at their local park were threatened with removal from a council meeting after being accused of disrupting proceedings.
Gunnersbury Park will be able to host 19 days of concerts and events per year between January 2027 and December 2031 after councillors gave plans the green light at a Hounslow Council Planning Committee meeting.
The plans have been hotly debated in the borough for years with many local residents and ward councillors pushing back against plans for the site to hold festivals and big concerts. Members of the public were unable to contribute to the hearing on Thursday (September 3) as a debate had already been held on the matter at the previous Planning Committee.
The committee had intended to make its decision on the events plan at last Thursday’s meeting without public input but residents attended to let their feelings be known. As a public meeting, members of the public are permitted to attend a Planning Committee meeting, however to be able to speak on a particular application they need permission in advance.
On some occasions, residents cheered when a councillor spoke against the proposals, while some locals also loudly shared their own thoughts. This led to Jimmy Walsh, the committee’s legal advisor intervening. He told those in the public area “this is not a public meeting” referring to the fact no public debate was scheduled to take place at the meeting.
He said: “These are the decision makers and legally they need to speak and the opportunity for residents to speak was on the last occasion. You need to remain silent and allow members to make their decision this evening – otherwise security will be called.”
Reflecting on the events of the evening, Chiswick Gunnersbury Councillor Joanna Biddolph told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “The meeting actually started with me saying to the chairman that no one knew when he deferred in August that it would mean no one could speak… so I was already concerned…. to be denied the chance to speak was the wrong thing to do.”
The planning committee meeting lasted for more than four hours, with the Gunnersbury Park section taking up 90 minutes. During the five-minute comfort break after voting, one mic was left on and a councillor could be heard saying that the item “dragged, longer than I thought”.
The item was ultimately passed by the committee, with Councillors Allister De Sa, and Darshan Nagi voting against. Councillor Tony Louki, Labour Chief Whip, joined Cllr Adrian Page of Reform UK and abstained.
Councillors Guy Lambert, Dan Bowring, Conrad Brown, Katherine Dunne, Adesh Farnham, Scott Hill, Craig Owen and Pamila Rodrigues voted in favour of the proposals.
The park will now have 19 live event days per calendar year. This permission will be granted for five years instead of the original 10.
The application originally sought to host up to 22 live days per year. This was then reduced following local backlash to the approved 19 days per year.
This will include a maximum of 115 operational days per year. This includes live performance days, set-up days and construction days.
There will be two bands relating to the capacity of events held at the park. Band 1 permits 20,000-29,999 attendees – this will be capped at nine days per year.
Band 2 allows for between 3,500 and 19,999 attendees for ten days per year. For Band 1, the off-site music noise cap has also been reduced by two decibels.
This comes as both Ealing and Hounslow Council are set to withdraw service fees for the park which currently makes up 20 per cent of its budget. The Gunnersbury Park CIC argues live events are central to maintaining the park’s budget.
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