Council wants to promote green near Hammersmith Bridge for more money-spinning outdoor events

By Ben Lynch, Local Democracy Reporter

The local council is looking to allow for more events in a Hammersmith park to bring in additional income.

Hammersmith and Fulham council has applied to vary its licence at St Paul’s Green to extend its hours and remove an existing limit on when it can be used. Currently the licence is only available for one Thursday, Friday and Saturday in October a year.

In its application, the council, which is also the licensing authority, wrote that more regular events ‘brings extra income into the council budget and choice of events for residents’.

The existing licence for St Paul’s Green, which is on Hammersmith Bridge Road by the flyover and St Paul’s Hammersmith Church, allows events between 5pm and 11pm Thursday and Friday and 11am to 11pm on Saturday, though limited to the October days. The requested variation would see the limit removed, plus an extension of the hours to 11am to 11pm seven days a week.

A representation by the Barclay Road Residents group was filed objecting to the proposal, noting concerns including the location of the park by the Hammersmith flyover.

They wrote: “In theory this might not sound too bad but in practice it could turn into all sorts of things that perhaps are not in the interest of crowd safety, public safety, safeguarding and thus the licensing objectives could be severely undermined and not promoted by either the licence holder or its third and fourth parties contracting out for the event management, event safety, etc.”

Papers for today’s licensing sub-committee meeting, at which the item is to be discussed, includes a letter from licensing compliance officer Lorna McKenna sent to the residents group.

In the letter, Ms McKenna wrote the request for a licence covering Monday to Sunday is to provide greater flexibility, and that the council is not looking to run events attracting more than 499 people ‘that frequently’.

She added the conditions attached to the application had been agreed with the police licensing team ahead of submission, and that events held at the park, such as last year’s Oktoberfest, require an event management plan to ensure issues such as access are resolved.

“The new licence would allow events to run for over 499 people where space permits,” she wrote. “We are limited as to what we can deliver in our parks in the wetter months and this hard standing area is a very central location where we can offer a wider events programme to the community and protect our public green spaces during winter months.”

Councils across London have been looking to their green spaces in an effort to boost income. The issue is however often contentious, with Wandsworth earlier this year withdrawing applications to hold events on Wandsworth Common, Tooting Common and King George’s Park.

Hammersmith and Fulham council has been approached for comment.

Pictured top: St Paul’s Green (Picture: Google Street View)