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Gunnersbury Park: park or commercial event space?
There has been a very worrying development in Gunnersbury Park that has serious implications for other parks as well – we need your help to object.
- Deadline for objections 18 December. See below for details on how to respond. Send objections to jacky.leung@hounslow.gov.uk and planningcomments@hounslow.gov.uk stating clearly that your objection relates to Planning Application P/2025/3274 – Gunnersbury Park 10 Year Events Plan.
- We are asking Londoners to submit their own objections on the basis that this park and the issue is of strategic importance to all London and contradicts London Plan policy.
Background
The park has been so over-used for commercial events it barely operates as a park any more and now there is an application for it to be used as a commercial event space for most of the year, for ten years.
Despite repeated concerns raised by residents to both the park management team and to the local council who own the park, regarding the scale and length of these commercial events, no real improvements have been seen. This is complicated by the fact that the council has leased the park to a Community Interest Company or CIC.
Now we have learned that the CIC leasing the park has submitted a blanket ten year planning application, seeking permission for 28 event days per year and for 90 setup days, totalling 118 days in a year.
We are not aware of this having been permitted anywhere else and believe this sets a dangerous precedent: the issues therefore go well beyond the serious harm it will cause to Gunnersbury Park and the public’s rights to use it.
- Suggestions for objections to submit. The deadline for objections is 18th of December.
- If you are not based in Hounslow, please stress in your response that this park and this issue is strategically important to the health and wellbeing of all Londoners hence your objection and that the application contradicts London Plan policy G4A particularly part (4) which states that Development Plans should “ensure that open space, particularly green space, included as part of development remains publicly accessible.”
Links to the planning application are included below, and CPRE London will submit its own objective, but here is a summary of the main points the local group intends to raise.
- The documents confirm 28 event days plus 90 build and breakdown days, totalling 118 operational days every year. This breaches UK planning law on temporary use. Temporary use is legally limited to 28 days per year under the GPDO 2015. A proposal for 118 days is a material change of use and cannot be approved through a ten year blanket consent.
- The park is being converted into a commercial venue. 118 days per year effectively converts the park into a commercial events site, contrary to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 Section 55 and London Plan Policy G3.
- The proposals conflict with the Premises Licence. The licence allows a limited number of controlled event days with strict noise and safety conditions, not 118 days. Planning cannot override the Licensing Act 2003.
- The noise plan seeks to allow 90 dB bass levels.The licence caps noise at 75 dB LAeq, but the planning documents propose up to 90 dB C-weighted, which would breach binding licence conditions and the statutory public nuisance objective.
- The transport assessment uses outdated 2011 Census data. The documents reject the valid 2021 Census, which breaches the NPPF requirement for up to date and reliable evidence, making transport modelling unsound.
- Ecological surveys are incomplete. The applicant admits Phase 2 species surveys are still required, so impacts on protected bats, birds, hedgehogs and the SINC cannot be lawfully assessed, contrary to NPPF Paragraphs 180 and 181.
- Traffic and safety impacts are underestimated. The claim that all visitors will use public transport while allowing up to 10,000 people per hour is unrealistic and breaches NPPF Paragraph 111, which requires refusal where safety impacts are severe.
- The build period removes public access for months. Three months of fencing, machinery and heavy vehicle activity every year harms amenity and public access, contrary to London Plan Policy G3 and the protections for Metropolitan Open Land.
Submissions due by 18th Dec
