GALA 2025

[cxh692]

Attached are stakeholder consultation documents for reference and discussion. 

GALA consultation document - final.pdfFetching info...

 

GALA 2025 - Production Schedule.pdfFetching info... GALA 2025 site plan.pdfFetching info...

Edited January 13 by cxh692

[first mate]

Thanks for posting this.

It looks as though the proposed footprint of the event is larger than ever before, with fenced off trackway stretching down the Colyton road side, well beyond the metal fence perimeter.

The schedule is now set to take up most of May and the first week of June, again one of the most beautiful times of year in the park.

They are wanting to add another day, which this year will be a supported 'community' festival. But surely this is to set precedent for adding many more days in future? Be careful what you wish for; the park is up for hire by this council. Do we want it to go the same way as Brockwell, where local residents are in despair at the slow erosion of their park and the annual noise and disruption?

Protecting our green, tranquil natural spaces is vital for the lungs of the city, for wildlife and the mental health of our local population.

 

 

Edited January 14 by first mate

[first mate]

Does anyone know where the consultation will be held? Last year they decided to have it at Peckham Levels. The year before they did it at the Clockhouse pub, next to Peckham Rye, a much more sensible location and easier for local residents to attend.

[Penguin68]

  On 15/01/2025 at 07:59, first mate said:

The year before they did it at the Clockhouse pub, next to Peckham Rye, a much more sensible location and easier for local residents to attend.

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So don't expect it to be there... 

[fishboy]

So here we go again, but with a proposal for a bigger and longer event. This despite the massive failings (again) last year with serious & long lasting damage to our park throughout the summer, lack of effective waste management, widespread public nuisance by the attendees, and of course the noise. Every year GALA are set conditions for their event licence, every year they fail to meet them, then every year they are granted a licence again - depressing.

First impressions from the site plan - the proposed footprint has increased dramatically, sprawling further down & across our park (image attached with 2024 footprint in orange & 2025 extension in red). There  will be a music stage within 50m of our front room. The entrance area will be on a sports pitch. The trackway for heavy plant access will be across two sports fields. The entrance / exit for heavy plant will be opposite a school. The road at that point is regularly gridlocked due to parked & waiting cars. Increased trackway = increased damage to grass. I'm sure there's plenty more that is unacceptable...

It's clear that we all need to comment on this consultation, but it's not clear how to actually add comments / participate. The email & consultation document both direct you to the GALA page on the council website - www.southwark.gov.uk/Gala2025 - but this only has details of the GALA PR sessions, not the official consultation. I've raised this with the council, I'll post if I get a response. I've also raised the issue that the council's Outdoor Event Policy states that "Applications for major events must be submitted a minimum of nine months prior to the event start date.", which would have been August 29th 2024 for this application. This is apparently necessary to give sufficient time for things like consultations...

[Marguerita98]

The failure of the council year on year to prevent the corporate take-over of our precious public space is appalling. The consultation process this year is deliberately dumbed down and takes the form of a survey with a range of anodyne tick boxes designed to give the appearance of a 'consultation' without requiring any hard comment or information that could be used to oppose the survey.  It may be possible to get some answers from Gala themselves so I will try to do that and post here if anything forthcoming.

[Marguerita98]

Hi again - finally prised the information out of them by making a complaint to the Events team (not that they're trying to make it difficult to attend or anything!).   Here are the details of the 'consultation' event on 29th January. Be good if people could go.

LOCATION

Upstairs at the Clock House Tavern

196 Peckham Rye

London

SE22 9QA

LUCHTIME SESSION
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM

EVENING SESSION
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

[first mate]

Did anyone manage to get to this? What was the feedback?

[DuncanW]

I didn't get residents tickets, but have signed up for the early bird release which goes live today at 10:00 am - I haven't received a link or access code though... anyone else?

 

[first mate]

I have no information on that. I'd imagine GALA would be happy to advise you direct.

I am interested to know what happened at the consultation meeting a few days ago and am hoping that someone from FOPRP can share. The concern is that it is proposed to extend the event footprint and timeframe.  If successful, this could set precedent for further extensions and for other events organisers to bid for slots throughout summer, in a scenario similar to what has happened at Brockwell Park.

This is not a flight of fancy, Cllr Catherine Rose has stated intention to monetise parkland.

[DuncanW]

Don't worry, the link came through just in time, and I'm in the queue for tickets now 

 

 

[first mate]

Glad you got sorted. Meantime, hoping for an update from someone on what happened at the GALA consultation meeting with local residents, a few days ago. Especially interested in thinking on their proposed event extension and footprint.

[fishboy]

I went to the early meeting, it was just the usual attempt to placate local residents. 

I guess the main points were that due to the new flood alleviation 'bunds' they can't use the usual entrance opp Harris Boys to bring in equipment etc, so they & the council are proposing using the gates opp Harris Girls and laying trackway all the way across to the site. I raised the point that that section of road is always busy with cars parked both sides, they said they'd look into restrictions. I also asked if they'd considered that there will be students taking GCSE exams at that time who could be disturbed by the activity, they said they hadn't (what a surprise...) and would talk to the school. I also pointed out that the majority of damage was caused by the trackway, so they are effectively knowingly causing more damage than last year. Note that there is more trackway all around the site than previously. 

The increased site footprint is apparently replacing space lost to the 'bunds'. They said they used that space for storage, but curiously none of the extra space will be for storage, so it is actually increasing the size of the festival. I pointed out that the entrance area is on a Gaelic football pitch, they said the council said it wouldn't be in use at that time, I responded that it would, by families trying to have picnics & play sports with their kids because the rest of the park has been annexed. I also suggested that this was the start of the festival creeping further east, to which there was no comment. 

The extra day is for a "community day", details of exactly what this would entail - music, workshops, food, theatre - who requested / wanted it, and how many attendees they expected, were very sketchy. I suggested it was just a fairly transparent attempt to curry favour with the local community and make a precedent for a longer festival, rather than a genuine & honest  desire to contribute something truly beneficial.

There were no definitive plans to tackle the anti social behaviour, littering or environmental damage over & above the ineffective actions of previous years. 

Official minicab drop off / pick up will be by the Clock House, but again no way of enforcing this.

Gala are constantly citing the opportunities for local acts, traders & employees as benefits from the festival, however they admitted not having any figures to quantity this. I requested they therefore cease to use these as benefits without proof of validity.

I once again raised the issue of the wildlife survey they commission being woefully inadequate, as it only surveys within the site, and seems only concerned with bird nests. There are other forms of wildlife - they were unaware of the Stag beetle population in the SW corner - and lots of birds nesting in the surrounding trees which will be disturbed. Again, no response, which confirms it is just a tick box exercise rather than a genuine attempt to guage the impact to flora & fauna.

That's all for now, I'm sure others have more. Basically, same as always, but bigger & longer...

Edited January 31 by fishboy
Autocorrect corrections...

[DuncanW]

I'm generally in favour and supportive of events like Gala, but this issue around vehicular access to the site does seem a bit concerning.

Essentially, they are going to build a fenced off road/trackway right accross the cricket and Gaelic football pitches... is that right? 

Hopefully they have a way of making that work which isn't too disruptive, but I can't envisage what that might be.  

[CPR Dave]

Why are the flood works taking so long ? And why do they need to close so much of the park to do them when most of the time nothing seems to be going on?

[d walker]

  On 01/02/2025 at 13:23, CPR Dave said:

Why are the flood works taking so long ? And why do they need to close so much of the park to do them when most of the time nothing seems to be going on?

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The flood alleviation works have been completed.  This thread is talking about large sections of the park being closed off for the setting up of the Gala festival. I am concerned at how much of the parks open areas ( sports fields and open fields opposite Harris boys) will be out of use by local people for quite a long time 

[CPR Dave]

If the flood works are done why are there still 6 ft metal fences all over the park (and also a massive flooodwater lake right where Gala is going to be) ?

[aggie]

  On 01/02/2025 at 11:17, DuncanW said:

I'm generally in favour and supportive of events like Gala, but this issue around vehicular access to the site does seem a bit concerning.

Essentially, they are going to build a fenced off road/trackway right accross the cricket and Gaelic football pitches... is that right? 

Hopefully they have a way of making that work which isn't too disruptive, but I can't envisage what that might be.  

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Apart from being yet another eyesore in our lovely park the track is going to be 5 metres wide, that’s wider than my living room! By the time this is installed it will be too late for people to object. This must be rethought, even more of our park is being given over to GALA. The council didn’t factor in HGV access when they planned the flood alleviation works and now they expect park goers to suffer further. Complaints might help, worth a try but needs to be before the consultation ends on Feb 10th

[d walker]

  On 02/02/2025 at 20:41, CPR Dave said:

If the flood works are done why are there still 6 ft metal fences all over the park (and also a massive flooodwater lake right where Gala is going to be) ?

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Those fences are around the newly created bunds. I'm assuming to protect the new planting? I know Gala said on Wednesday meeting they had to put their fences around the bunds to ensure they were not damaged,  apparently wild flowers have been planted there. The flood alleviation works was to protect houses from flooding not the park,  that area of the park always floods as lowest part with river Peck underneath.  It will be interesting to see how Gala manage if we have heavy rain in May!

[first mate]

  On 02/02/2025 at 21:37, aggie said:

The council didn’t factor in HGV access when they planned the flood alleviation works and now they expect park goers to suffer further. Complaints might help, worth a try but needs to be before the consultation ends on Feb 10th

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It is hard to believe this was not considered well in advance, either by the council or by GALA. Cllr Catherine Rose is adamant she wants to monetise parks, so this is a way to justify changing the event footprint  and creates precedent for yet more changes and park event creep.

[CPR Dave]

Thanks D Walker, I think I'd misunderstood what the works actually involved! Sorry.

[hpsaucey]

Link to the consultation hopefully: https://engage.southwark.gov.uk/en-GB/projects/galaseries2025

HP

[fishboy]

  On 01/02/2025 at 11:17, DuncanW said:

Essentially, they are going to build a fenced off road/trackway right accross the cricket and Gaelic football pitches... is that right? 

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The key thing to stress is that everything they want to do is just a PROPOSAL at the moment, and the important thing is for everyone who objects to take part in the consultation and hopefully force the council to accept what a ridiculous & unacceptable proposition it is! 

The consultation ends on 10th Feb -

http://www.southwark.gov.uk/Gala2025

 

[Kate Honey]

I went to the consultation and spoke to Gala’s ‘Head of Sustainability’ who knew nothing about any nesting bird surveys, bats, beetles etc. He also didn’t have an answer on plastic waste, disposal vapes, or the impact on the newly recovered ground (other than the meagre litter picking). I followed up with an email to give him more time to get an answer but still no reply. Will post on here when I get one.

It might help to email the licensing team at Southwark as well as take the survey.  

[Dulwitch]

I was at both meetings. Frankly I think there's little point to them. Gala's licence was granted in perpetuity, they make all the right noises but they are totally disinterested in the problems and damage they inflict.

The map fails to include the area of park which will be set aside for a Lime bike parking area which is to be expanded this year and the area used for the Park run start/finish is within the new expanded footprint.

They said there were no plans to cut down any trees BUT one has been felled near the pedestrian gate in Colyton road which would obstruct the proposed HGV track. A replacement has been planted a few metres away but that doesn't excuse cutting down a beautiful established tree. Agree that the ecological survey is utterly worthless as are a lot of other statements in the consultation documents. The 21 day timeframe doesn't include loss of space due to remedial works or the fencing off for reseeded grass to grow...which is destroyed again less than a year later. The bund and meadow planting will be inside the boundary fencing. I doubt it will survive unscathed.

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