‘Landmark’ decision on frequency of Gunnersbury Park festivals due

Gunnersbury Park is rich in biodiversity and an Ecological Management Plan will be needed if more events go ahead; photograph Juliet McDonald

Hounslow Council’s planning committee will consider if economic and cultural benefits of a five-year permission to hold events outweighs the harm caused by noise and ecological impact

On Thursday 6 August, Gunnersbury Estate 2026 CIC, the company that runs events at the park for the Gunnersbury Museum and Park Development Trust, will make its case to the planning committee at Hounslow Council for a controversial application for a blanket five-year permission to cover all festivals.

They expect to hear within the next week whether it will be approved or not.

This proposal seeks to change the use of a part of Gunnersbury Park for staging temporary events for a five-year term between 01 January 2027 and 31 December 2031.

Gunnersbury Park is on the border of Hounslow and Ealing boroughs – and managed jointly by their councils – but it is Hounslow Council who have the responsibility for deciding upon the necessary planning permissions for this Grade II* listed parkland.

The application has attracted significant public interest

Difficult decisions to be made

It should not be an easy decision because the 70-hectare area is currently designated as Metropolitan Open Land (MOL), a Nature Conservation Area and part of the Gunnersbury Park Conservation Area, but opponents fear that the need for money will override the impact on the local community and wildlife and even ‘set a national precedent for the de facto privatisation of public parks through the planning system’.

Should each event above a certain number be applied for separately by the Trust – the historical process – or does it make more sense to approve a rolling programme of large-scale events for a five-year period,  is a hotly contested issue.

Wildlife from swans on the Round Pond to insects in the bug house could be negatively impacted, opponents say; photographs Juliet McDonald

A divisive matter

Members of the Gunnersbury Park Garden Estate Residents Association, who fiercely oppose this plan, and members of the Trust, who see it as an essential solution to a huge funding hole, will both attend the planning committee meeting at Hounslow House on 6 August to put their case.

They aren’t the only parties passionate about the outcome. Festival goers have been very disappointed by the cancellation of events this summer – such as Annie Mac Before Midnight and Waterworks.

Organisers were forced to pivot sharply and relocate to venues in east, south and north London because of ‘commercial considerations’ that included council planning permission not being granted in time.

READ MORE: Gunnersbury Park loses five days of live events as summer festivals pull out

READ MORE: Festivals plan to return to Gunnersbury Park next year, as Park discusses contracts with two new event organisers

One festival goer said:

“I relocated to the Gunnersbury Park area because I’d been to events in the past and loved the park, but I had been wondering why there aren’t so many festivals this summer. For me, it was a positive thing to find a great place to live that has music events on the doorstep.”

More than 500 objections

Planning application P/2025/3274 says the Gunnersbury Museum and Park Development Trust will ensure the continuity of their summer programme at the park and provide event companies with the necessary certainty they need.

They argue there will not necessarily be more events than there are already, but the blanket planning application will remove the uncertainty for the organisers as they won’t have to apply separarately for each one beyond a very limited number, with all the paperwork and cost that involves.

It has, however, already attracted more than 500 objections across two rounds of consultation.

Large-scale events are very profitable for Gunnersbury Park

More money is needed

Hold-ups at Hounslow Council over allowing Gunnersbury Park to operate its usual entertainments have been blamed on the licence review in March initiated by the Gunnersbury Park Garden Estate Residents Association, and local elections in May, as well as the extra time needed to consider a lengthier planning application.

READ ALSO: Gunnersbury residents demand a review of Gunnersbury Park’s licence to hold events

READ ALSO: Gunnersbury Park allowed to keep current noise level for festivals

The new planning permission would replace the current bureaucratic and costly process whereby Gunnersbury Estate 2026 CIC has to apply for each event on a case-by-case basis. Last year, three applications were made for three events.

In the view of locals represented by the Gunnersbury Park Garden Estate Residents Association (GPGERA), that planning permission will allow Gunnersbury Park to do whatever they want without annual scrutiny ‘just because it’s more efficient for them’.

Notable features of Gunnersbury Park include the Italian Garden and its attractive ponds; photographs Juliet McDonald

So, what exactly is being proposed?

In planning application P/2025/3274, every calendar year would have up to 22 live event days with a total of 115 days for set-up and removal of infrastructure as well as ‘dark’ days or inactive periods.

The Trust argues that this change of use of Metropolitan Open Land is appropriate as most of the park would still be open for the public. Any harm would be temporary, and residents’ concerns related to noise and ecology damage would be mitigated by stricter regulatory conditions and a lowering of the maximum noise level.

On Thursday evening, the planning committee councillors, chaired by Pritam Grewal, will consider how much money large-scale events bring in not just to the park but to local businesses such as contractors and mobile caterers.

Basic services such as litter picking and pond cleaning are increasingly covered by commercial funds; photographs Juliet McDonald

Why don’t the councils support the park more?

Ironically, the need for extra funding for the park has been created by the boroughs of Hounslow and Ealing who residents say have ‘almost washed their hands’ of this space because neither owns it outright.

Instead, funding from local councils has been almost halved in the past seven years, leaving Gunnersbury Museum and Park Development Trust, the charity which runs the park, to fund 70 per cent of the money it needs.

In advance of the landmark meeting, The Chiswick Calendar spoke to representatives from each side.

The needs of festival goers such as visitors to Waterworks are prioritised ahead of residents say local groups; photograph Angelina Nikolayeva

Locals have been ‘disregarded’

Living close by in the picturesque Gunnersbury Triangle, Pete Bainbridge, the current chair of GPGERA, and his children are regular users of the park and have experienced first-hand a succession of noisy festivals.

“We were once cut-off from our home because police vans had to block the North Circular to allow festival goers to cross because of Lovebox’s mismanagement of visitors leaving their event.”

He and his neighbours say that they have had to endure temporary structures, fencing, vehicle compounds, drug dealing, anti-social behaviour, defecating and urinating in their gardens, burglary whilst visitors were leaving the park and amplified sound reaching up to 90 dB (C).

I asked Pete if he had ever attended an event himself.

Monitoring of complaints

“I do not have to go because I can sit in my garden and listen to it,” he says. “Sound is the most talked of disturbance [of a music event], but it’s also the monitoring of the complaints which is cause for concern. The Gunnersbury Estate CIC does this themselves and it’s like they’re marking their own homework.”

I was also curious if he could imagine his children – when they get to their teenage years – enjoying a music festival on their doorstep instead of hiking to east London or elsewhere. He conceded:

“I completely agree that there is a need for these events – they add to the cultural life of the area – but we’re saying that they need to be better managed and have the appropriate oversight.”

A more balanced and fairer approach

“We understand that the park needs money, and we’re not saying there should be no events, but [the scheduling] needs to be more balanced and fairer.”

In fact, the Gunnersbury Park Garden Estate Residents Association has long argued that the number of events should be reduced ‘by about half’ and permitted noise levels reduced from 75 dB to 65dB.

One hidden outcome, complains Pete, is that the build time for the event is bigger than the live event itself. The result of that is that large sections of the park are closed off to families during the summer months when demand for green space is at its highest.

“The Trust say that they’re only using a small part, but I would challenge this because visitors come and go, so they form corridors on the roads. One of the entrances even went right through the children’s playground.”

Festival goers at Lovebox and Citadel enjoy the summer sunshine

Thousands of people flood the area

When Gunnersbury Park started having festivals the crowds were larger. At one notorious Lovebox and Citadel event, ‘as many as 40,000 people’ walked along Gunnersbury Lane to get to the park, resulting in Councillor Joanna Biddolph spending all day dealing with complaints.

“On event days, you get large crowds of people flooding the neighbourhood and it’s quite intimidating,” continues Pete. “Even if the crowd management at the event is okay and that’s where the resources [of event companies] go – it’s the periphery of the park that suffers and there is little crowd management outside of the park.”

“We’ve talked to local bobbies, but they are so resource-constrained that burglaries have actually happened as crowds are coming out of the park.”

Asked what the solution is, Pete and his fellow residents at GPGERA would prefer a mix of grant funding and charitable donations to pay for the park’s upkeep.

To that end, they have done a lot of work on researching alternatives and put forward proposals for the park, though the Trust already applies for any grants for which they are eligible, and have been very successful in getting them.

READ MORE: Residents association submit alternative funding proposals for Gunnersbury Park

The group’s main issue with the new planning application is that it encourages the park to become dependent on ever-increasing commercial occupation.

“It’s got to be a bit of a blank cheque,” says Pete, “because it’s effectively circumventing planning considerations on the grounds of efficiency. There’s a reason we have planning laws and it’s so that we can either accept or reject a proposal.”

The Trust says they are listening

Elizabeth Coningsby, Head of Commercial, for Gunnersbury Estate 2026 CIC says “we’re working our socks off and deliberately programme so that there’s something for everyone at Gunnersbury Park.”

She feels it is unfair to say that they are not listening to residents because application P/2025/3274 shows that they have already amended their proposal to take into account residents’ concerns.

“A consultation period went on, and we’ve listened to the community, reducing our live event days from 28 to 22 – this is less than the 40 live event days we are allowed under our March 2026 licence.”

The original planning application sought permission for events for the next ten years, but the Trust has adjusted their current proposal to five years.

Gunnersbury Park has significant areas of tranquil woodland to protect; photograph Juliet McDonald

No more than 13 per cent of parkland occupied

The new application, which runs to 44 pages, describes in detail how the proposed event areas Arena 1 and Arena 2, which cover the Old Cricket Pitches and South Playing Fields, will occupy no more than 13 per cent of the park area, and any minor structures that are outside of these arenas – eg. low-level pedestrian barriers to mark egress routes – would typically only be in place on live event days, and where needed, stored within the secure fenced area.

It also details how attendee capacities have been set at 20,000 to 29,999 for 10 days (max) and 3,500 to 19,999 for 12 days (min) whilst maximum off-site music noise levels will be set at 73db (A) weighted / 88db (C) weighted for 10 days and less for the remaining, smaller events.

I asked Elizabeth about Gunnersbury Park Garden Estate Residents Association’s complaint that Gunnersbury Park would not be subject to scrutiny if their permission is won.

Admin reduced but not regulatory control

‘I don’t accept this blank cheque description,” she says. “The planning permission, if granted, doesn’t take away the regulation only the admin. We will still have an event management plan for each and every event.”

“We are still subject to strict regulatory controls. If you look at biodiversity, the park will be better off by ten per cent than not having these events. We’re not just making the land good, we’re improving it. Planning conditions are even higher than the council licence conditions.”

In support of their application, the Trust has submitted a Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment and will improve on the 2025 baseline by enhancing two hectares of grassland. They would be bound by the Environment Act 2021 to achieve this target and will have to report regularly to the Council on the BNG.

The line up of performers at a recent Waterworks event

Longer-term planning needed to secure artists

As for finances, Elizabeth does admit that it’s been a tough year but is optimistic about the future.

“We lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in one phone call when a major event organiser pulled out, but they’re coming back next year. Of our 2.2 million budget, 66 per cent of that comes from commercial events.”

She explains that there has been a shift in the way event organisers such as Waterworks book artists and that they need longer-term planning, which is the reason why application P/2025/3274 is so important for the future success of the park.

Against a backdrop of local residents calling for more financial transparency, Elizabeth assures us that one hundred per cent of their commercial income goes back into The Trust.

“We’re very proud of our events, which bring world-class artists to our park. Last year we gave out 2,000 complimentary tickets to locals and will continue doing this and it’s in all our contracts. Although some residents oppose the events, seven per cent of our attendees in 2025 were from Ealing and Hounslow. That’s 17,500 people who paid for a full price ticket.”

She admits, too, that they are always trying to improve.

Residents at the nearby Gunnersbury Park garden estate complain that they have to keep their windows closed during live events

Improved complaints procedure

“We have tightened up how we do complaints, recording the number of complaints, categorising them – some are just lost property for example – and sending them back to the council.

“The park has a residents’ phone line that is not just run by the event organisers but involves a Gunnersbury Park team member. It’s live so something can immediately be done about whatever issue is raised.

“We are here for London, and we want to work with our local residents,” she concludes.

“Ultimately the residents and the CIC both want the same thing,” says the chair of GPGERA, Pete Bainbridge. “We both want the park to be successful, but we disagree on how to go about it.”

Anyone interested in hearing the debate in full can go to Hounslow House, 7 Bath Road, Hounslow TW3 3EB on Thursday 6 August at 7pm.

The meeting will be accessible to the public to watch live (and thereafter in a recorded form) via the Council’s YouTube Channel which can be found using this link.