Lambeth Council has said its decision to grant a licence for festivals Field Day and the Mighty Hoopla in Brockwell Park was unlawful, following pressure from Brockwell Tranquillity.

But the festivals are likely to continue.

The group successfully crowd funded legal costs to challenge Lambeth Council’s decision, which prompted the authority to concede their original license was unlawful, spokesperson Alice Salisbury told the News Shopper.

This was because the council failed to release documents and information regarding the decision making process.

“They are presenting this as an administrative error, but in reality it’s that they failed to publish the issue is the fundamental things required to make this lawful, it’s the decision itself, its not something you forget as a council,” she said. 

“When we went to the legal team they said they can’t review it [the council’s decision] because Lambeth have failed to release the information. And they still won’t release the reports on environmental impact. I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t exist,” Ms Salisbury said.

“Thousands of residents have campaigned against this. In this context it is amazing they didn’t publish the decision. It’s not just a piece of process, it is fundamental to the entirety of the decision.”

But a Lambeth Council spokesperson said to the Brixton Buzz that this was a “procedural omission,” and not an issue with the decision itself.

“The decision will be made as soon as possible and published along with background documentation as soon as reasonably practicable after the decision is made,” he said.

Ms Salisbury said she was under no illusion the license would not be issued, but wanted to scrutinise the council’s decision making process.

“The reality is they are coming to the same decision again, but this time they will have to be open about why they believe it’s the right decision despite experts and locals sayings it’s not. This allows locals to scrutinise decision making process.”

She said the group were prepared to challenge the council again upon seeing the documents.

Lambeth Council have been approached for comment.