Agenda item

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, Paragraph 29 of the Council’s Constitution.

The Panel received a deputation on major events in Finsbury Park, from the Friends of Finsbury Park Group (FOFPG). The deputation was introduced by Gina Harkell and Lawrence Singh. The key points of the deputation are summarised as:

• 2022 saw the biggest Wireless Festival so far with half the useable park fenced off from 22nd June - 24th July. 250k people attended over the six days, most of whom were not from Haringey. FOFPG would like to see the Council move away from large scale events and to adopt a more collaborative approach with the local community, to use the space as a unique area promoting biodiversity and offering families a natural outdoor green space to enjoy, play sports and to use the children’s playgrounds. 
• The Council is consulting on its Parks and Green Spaces Strategy. FOFPG believes a more consultative approach is more in-line with the stated aims of the strategy.
• Only 8% of tickets went to Haringey residents. Most came from outside London. Tickets were £130 – it was suggested that this may have contributed to people trying to surge the entrances to get in for free. 
• FOFPG advised that they would like to see the events stopped for three reasons:
  • Public Safety: There was poor crowd control at the park entrance to the festivals on Seven Sisters Road as thousands of festival goers blocked the road outside.  It had to be cordoned off by police blocking traffic and the tube station.  Using videos, we have shown how close the event came to a tragedy as the crowd surged forward and people were crushed at the front trying to enter the festival.  The event resulted in a lot of bad publicity for both Haringey Council and Live Nation in both national and local newspapers and BBC TV. Live Nation has had similar events happen at other festivals it organises and 8 people dies in a Live Nation event in Houston.
  • Environmental damage to the park: Grass was pounded into oblivion, tree branches broken and there was structural damage to drains and kerbs.  Wildlife suffered.
  • The negative impact on the community, which has resulting in increasing opposition to these events. The petition being collected by FOFPG has over 2400 signatures.
• Combating the impact of climate change is incompatible with providing large scale festivals. These are more safely provided in purpose built stadiums like the 02 or Wembley.

The following arose during the discussion of the deputation:

a.    The Panel enquired whether the Friends group had an alternative funding proposals to cover the shortfall in income from events, if they were to be stopped. This was felt to be of particular concern given the pressures on existing budgets. In response, the Friends group advised that they felt that Finsbury Park should be funded from the Parks budget, just like every other park. It was felt that parks were a core service offer and key community resource which should be funded just like any other key service. The Friends group set out that the judicial review, clearly set out that the money raised from events had to be spent on Finsbury Park. It was suggested that getting any detailed financial information from the Council was difficult, but that the latest 2020/21 accounts set out that the staffing budget for Finsbury Park was £871k. Ms Harkell suggested that this figure seemed implausible and questioned how much the staff were being paid, given the number of staff employed there. 

b.    The Panel sought clarification about how they would like to see the impacts highlighted by the deputation minimised in some way. In response, the deputation party advised that the friends group was not in favour of any of the festivals taking place, particularly as at £130 a ticket, these weren’t for local people. The parks should be funded through the revenue budget and they would like to see a return to the old days of having local free festivals in the park.

c.    The Panel queried whether there were any community benefits that could be used to make these festivals more accessible to local people, such as free tickets. In response, the friends group advised that they did not think it was possible to have these events in the parks safely, there were too many access points and it was not feasible to employ enough staff to cover them all. The Videos of people climbing over fences and crowd surges were alarming and there were grave concerns for people’s safety.

d.    The Chair thanked the Friends group for their deputation.

RESOLVED

Noted.