A London council acted lawfully in hiring out part of Finsbury Park for the 2016 Wireless Festival, the Court of Appeal has held.
Thousands of music fans headed to the north London park in July last year for the three-day festival, headlined by Calvin Harris, Chase & Status and Kygo. However, the event also caused disruption for local dog-walkers and other users of the park.
In R (oao Friends of Finsbury Park) v Haringey LBC [2017] EWCA Civ 1831, the court rejected the argument put forward by the group, Friends of Finsbury Park, that the council did not have the authority to restrict access to any part of the park for the purposes of recreation. The Friends argued that facilitating a major event, to the exclusion of the public generally, was a breach of the council’s duty to hold the park in trust for public recreation.
The court held that s 145 of the Local Government Act 1972, in conferring a power on all local authorities to ‘enclose or set apart any part of a park’ for the provision of entertainment, gave the council authority to exclude the public so the festival could go ahead.
Delivering the lead judgment, Lord Justice Hickinbottom said ‘there does not appear to be a logical reason why London boroughs should be deprived of the powers which non-London local authorities have in respect of entertainment in parks under s 145.
‘[Counsel for the appellant, Richard Harwood QC] suggested that there might be a rationale in the population density in London and/or the size of the capital, but there is nothing to suggest that Parliament had that in mind as a reason to reduce the powers in London’.
Hugh Craddock, a Friends’ case officer, said the decision was ‘hugely disappointing… Some councils have acted as if their parks were their own private land, and rented them out to maximise revenue’.
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