Strand on the Green residents ask for ‘robust and enforceable’ rules for Brentford FC’s new live music events

Gtech Community Stadium

Residents association wants effective crowd management and measures to address antisocial behaviour

Members of the Strand on the Green residents’ association (SoGA) are asking Hounslow Council to impose ‘robust and enforceable’ regulations on Brentford FC for the operation of music events at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Brentford FC has applied for permission to hold up to six live-music event days each year.

SoGA does not object to the concerts in principle, they say.

‘However, we are asking Hounslow Council to secure robust and enforceable protections for Strand on the Green, including:

• effective crowd management and measures to address antisocial behaviour;
• concert-specific parking and pick-up controls;
• litter collection and post-event cleansing; and
• an absolute 22.30 finish for amplified entertainment’.

Strand on the Green; photograph Ljubima Woods

The Association is wary of the effect concerts will have on the Strand on the Green area, mindful of the trouble there has been over festivals in Gunnersbury Park.

Chiswick Gunnersbury’s councillors are holding a meeting next Thursday (24 September) at Chiswick Town Hall because they say the Council has not listened to the concerns of residents.

READ ALSO: Chiswick Gunnersbury councillors call town hall meeting about festivals in Gunnersbury Park

SoGA is encouraging local residents to submit comments on the planning application, (P/2026/2531): ‘particularly where you have personal experience or concerns about how the proposals may affect you.

‘Individual responses help demonstrate the strength and breadth of local feeling’, they say.

The deadline for submitting responses is 30 September.

Bell & Crown pub on Thames Road

Brentford FC expects the concerts to bring up to 22,600 people to the area – over 5,000 more than attend football matches

In their response SoGA sets out how they expect Strand on the Green to be affected. Brentford FC expects the concerts to bring up to 22,600 people, around 31% more than the stadium’s football capacity. The Club recognises that concert audiences may differ in their travel patterns and familiarity with the area, and that alcohol may be consumed.

‘Strand on the Green is a quiet residential conservation area, but also a riverside destination with several pubs’, say SoGA, and the planning application’s Environmental Statement states that the football club expects concertgoers to spend money in local pubs before and after events.

‘Its narrow riverside path and residential streets are poorly suited to late-night crowds, litter, public urination or informal taxi pick-ups. The applicant’s own documents show why the area will be affected.

Towpath flooded by the tide

Kew Bridge station may take an hour to clear after a concert

‘Around 4,000 attendees are expected to leave by Kew Bridge station, with a queue of up to 1,800 people that may take an hour to clear.

‘A further 2,210 attendees are assigned to the southern route towards Kew Bridge Road, together with around 505 one-way car trips per event’.

The Strand on the Green controlled parking zone operates only between 10.00 am and 12.00 pm and 6.00 and 8.00 pm on weekdays, and between 2.00 and 4.00 pm at weekends. ‘A maximum stay applies only while the zone is in operation, so a vehicle arriving in the early evening can comply during the controlled period and then remain for the rest of the night’.

Event-day options for the Strand on the Green Controlled Parking Zone have been consulted on but were not adopted, so there is no event-day designation at Strand on the Green as there is the other side of Kew Bridge for events at Kew Gardens in the borough of Richmond.

Strand on the Green – Photograph of the day by Ljubima Woods – @ljubimawoods

Strand on the Green; photograph Ljubima Woods

Strand on the Green needs to be specifically included in assessments for noise, lighting, and antisocial behaviour

Brentford FC confirm that on football days taxi and rideshare pick-ups ‘happen as chosen by the rider/driver on streets surrounding’ the stadium, but despite this, SoGA say: ‘Strand on the Green was not included as a specific receptor in either the noise or lighting assessment, and the effects of off-site antisocial behaviour were not assessed’.

The Association notes the Statement of Community Involvement, the document explaining how a local council will consult the public on planning policies and applications, records commitments to measures on litter, stewarding, crowd dispersal and antisocial behaviour, and to cleansing surrounding residential streets, but does not explain how this will work in practice.

Enterprise Performance Management planning ‘contains no measures on antisocial behaviour or public urination, defers the cleaning plan to ‘a later date’ and states that formalised crowd management ‘is unlikely to be required or recommended along all routes’.

The Travel Plan says only that parking zone hours ‘may require tailoring’.

SoGA asks that the essential protections they list ‘are secured through planning conditions and an approved management plan, rather than left to event-by-event discretion’.

River Thames at Strand on the Green – Photograph of the day by Jennifer Griffiths – @jengriffiths49

The River Thames at Strand on the Green; photograph Jennifer Griffiths

‘The impacts will not stop at the stadium boundary’

While Brentford FC makes reference to the requirement in the London Plan to support the night time economy, SoGA also points out it requires planning decisions to improve safety for night-time users and to address the cumulative impact of licensed premises on antisocial behaviour, noise, and health and wellbeing for residents.

As well as the protections listed, they ask that no concert take place on the same day as a major event at Gunnersbury Park or Kew Gardens, ‘unless the Council is satisfied that the combined dispersal can be managed’.

Their comments on the planning application conclude:

‘SoGA is not opposed in principle to a maximum of six live music event days a year between May and August at the Gtech Community Stadium.

‘The impacts will not stop at the stadium boundary, and Strand on the Green must be expressly included in the arrangements for crowd management, antisocial behaviour, parking and cleansing.

‘Subject to a firm 22:30 curfew and the funded, enforceable measures set out above, we believe the proposal could operate acceptably alongside the neighbouring residential community’.

You can read their comments in their entirety here: SoGA Response

Photograph of the day by Judy Loe

Strand on the Green sunset; photograph Judy Loe