Festivals in Gunnersbury Park have too often been used to divide the Chiswick community with some voices assuming the clamour is for no festivals, none. It is true that, after the experience of Lovebox/Citadel in 2018, the overall view was “never again” but no-one who has contacted me fails to understand that Gunnersbury Park needs to raise money. The point is how and, if it has to be festivals, how many, how often, how long for and how loud.
There have been some concessions on decibels, thumping and vibrations, but still some sofas shake and every year the sound level is punishingly impactful in a new location because festival stages are differently orientated. A large area of the park is fenced off, diverting the park run, curtailing dog walks, preventing the sense of escape to the countryside that the un-interrupted view of the open fields give when the park is fully accessible.
Then there’s accountability: how much money do the festivals bring in and how is it spent; can’t drug dealing be controlled; why is the playground an access route; what about damage to the land, inadequate stewarding, poor litter management, revolting anti-social behaviour, aggression, policing … the list is long. The assumption made by residents who tell people who live near the park to stop moaning, get a life, go away for the weekend, is that it is all about noise. It isn’t.
The Krankbrother festival on Sunday, 15th June reached new lows. That spurred residents of the Gunnersbury Park Garden Estate, who are consistently badly affected, to ask for festivals to be added to the Chiswick Area Forum agenda. Their well-argued, last-minute plea was accepted. On a hot and sticky evening on Wednesday, four speakers made their points with well-informed, calm, balanced reasoning giving suggestions for change and improvement. Applause for them and questioners was enthusiastic, loud and sustained. Some came from Ealing Common ward, opposite the park’s northern boundary, where emotions run even higher – their councillors aren’t involved or listening or visible.
One of the four residents who spoke authoritatively about problems caused by festivals in Gunnersbury Park
From my perspective, representing residents’ and businesses’ views over every festival season, it seemed that improvements made and lessons learned had been forgotten. I wanted to know if the promised briefing pack for festival organisers wasn’t up to scratch or if they hadn’t bothered to follow it. I have a long list of failures to include in my follow-up report, all of which I hope will be rectified before the August line-up starts.
Licensing enforcement was in attendance and insisted that the licence hadn’t been breached – but committed to reviewing it later this year. David Bowler, CEO of the community interest company that manages the park, was bullish – but made some concessions including to be more transparent and to communicate more effectively. Communication had taken several steps back this year. Other problems include stewarding, which was under-staffed, and litter bins, which were absent.
One thing there was more of was public urination and defecation and it happened in roads and gardens all around the park and leading to it. Another concession: despite an email from the park team, a few days before the area forum, reiterating where the park team wants portable loos despite residents and businesses saying no, no, no, David Bowler said he understood that no-one wanted stinky loos next to their homes, outside their shops, on their land. Now we need him to keep his word and make better arrangements with improved signage encouraging festival-goers not to pee and poo behind bins, into corners, gardens, hedges and up stairs. You can watch the area forum here.
Defecation is not limited to festivals
When Cllr John Todd and I meet for coffee and a catch-up, we often both say we have been surprised yet again by the extraordinary variety of the cases we take up for residents, business ratepayers and charities in our wards.
Staying with the theme of public urination and defecation, one resident reported repeatedly seeing human excrement, and nearby soiled paper, in shrubberies or on drainage grilles on her regular walking route. Rightly, she wanted to get to the, err, bottom of it to stop it. We wondered if it were the consequence of a rough sleeper, desperate during the night with no loos open. Whoever, there was nothing for a councillor to do without evidence despite exasperation increasing with every new dump.
What we didn’t expect was that it would be the act of the driver of a lorry, with a foreign number plate, that is regularly parked overnight on this quiet out-of-the-way road – yet that is what another resident saw: a blatant performance, the driver’s side door open, engine running, it wasn’t even dark.
The name on the lorry led me to what seemed to be a charming, small, family-run business in an English county. It didn’t seem right for what appeared to be a long-haul overseas business, but I picked up the phone composing my question carefully. The owner sighed, said it wasn’t them, and asked, “Are you in London and ringing about their horrible drivers?”. Together we sleuthed through Google and found a website with photos of lorries in the same livery. “I’m going to ring them,” she said; “it Is damaging our brand”. I contacted them, too, and look forward to their reply. Regardless of the offensive behaviour, if the company’s long-distance lorries don’t have cabs with a loo and space for overnight sleeping, or its drivers’ journey times don’t allow for breaks at service stations, or if the business hasn’t suggested using 24-hour garages with loos, something’s not right with their employment practices.
Of course, we expect requests to deal with potholes, gutters inches deep in detritus because roads haven’t been swept for years, trees that need to be pollarded, pruned or trimmed so branches don’t knock windows or block light, housing (another eviction has landed in my inbox) and the many other typical requests that flow in. But there is often something very unusual happening on our desks.
Pothole patrol
It was very hot when I strolled along Wavendon Avenue two Sundays ago, taking photos of the potholes that residents have long been reporting. There were a couple that might – only just might – meet the threshold to be filled but I fear the rest won’t count – if you look at them from the strict threshold perspective (which the council knows residents think is wrong). When you drive along the road, the problems are clear: there is a long stretch of low level dipped channels interspersed with pits which, added together, make the route unacceptably bumpy. I will do my best to persuade Hounslow Highways that wholesale resurfacing is needed not another “piecemeal patch-up job” like the one that has been announced for pavements across the borough.
Post Office reply – corporate smoke and mirrors
If you responded to the consultation announced quietly by Post Office Ltd, you will have had an email raising alarm while telling you not very much. The explanation, that the branch closed for “operational reasons” makes no sense to us from our several conversations with the postmaster who we know well. Nor do we understand what “a replacement branch” means. We have a branch; it needs to be re-opened. We need answers – including a firm re-opening date – not more corporate smoke and mirrors.
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