Forum Topic

Elthorne Park Being Turned Into a Commercial Festival Site?

I was surprised to learn that Elthorne Park will soon host the PALOP Festival this July — a large-scale event that many local residents were unaware of until recently As you all know the  Park is a quiet, mainly residential green space, valued by families, dog-walkers, and the wider community. While Hanwell Carnival and the Hanwell Hootie bring noise and disruption, they are long-standing community events that we accept and enjoy.they are part of what makes Hanwell and our community special.The PALOP Festival, by contrast, is a commercial event with no local roots. It feels wrong that our park should be hired out in this way, with residents expected to tolerate the inevitable noise, litter, and disruption. Worse still, it risks setting a dangerous precedent.Once the door is opened to external festivals, how long before our public spaces become regular commercial venues?  Residents deserve a say before the character of our community is changed without our consent.If you agree, please make your feelings known to your local councillor — and remind them that they face elections next year.

Mark callan ● 105d28 Comments

Yes, it’s the old golf course. The new name is meaningless. As for using parks for increasing numbers of commercial events? That’s the future. It was even bragged about in the blurb when the new park name was unveiled.When this type of dinosaur event was held in Osterley Park a few years ago the operators caused an enormous amount of damage to the parkland, not least with the Lorrie’s used to bring the animatronic animals in and out. I was volunteering there at the time and the National Trust vowed never to have them back. Expect similar levels of damage to these rewilded parts of Ealing.For context on monetising parks and flogging off assets, the council drew up an extensive list of everything it owned or controlled about a decade ago. Everything was allocated a value and graded on a scale of disposability. We’ve seen some things go, with Ealing Town Hall perhaps the most high profile.You think closing the children’s centres is to do with rationalising the services and improving it (utter nonsense of course), it’s to do with the sale value of the land. The Log Cabin in Northfields is the prime example, its location next to the Tube a perfect fit for those development partners so beloved of Mason and co.And for those here who think austerity made this inevitable, pause to consider why the council has so abjectly failed to bring in the Community Infrastructure Levy until this year, a while 10 years since it first started considering doing so’. It would mean bigger financial contributions (calculated on the square footage of new developments) from those development partners so beloved of Madonna’s co, and the money would be ringfenced for the benefit of residents, not frittered away on unaccountable projects with little or no oversight. Of course, the developers don’t like it as it eats into profit but have a think about all the construction across the borough in recent years and weep when you realise how short changed we have been.LBE has belatedly introduced CIL but needless to say the developers are trying to wriggle out of it. Berkeley Homes has a hearing on August 5 to determine whether the council’s CIL plan is flawed. They’ve only had over a decade to get it right!

Simon Hayes ● 10d

Where is Pear Tree Park, do you mean Perivale Park where Ealing Council managed to decimate a perfect 9 hole golf course for the sake of rewilding??

Peter Tolhust ● 10d

Your Councils couldn't care less about YOU, and I suspect that to be the case regardless of the colour of the rosette.Politics in Councils needs abolishing and replaced with Residents' Representation.

Rosco White ● 10d

Yes agreed. At Pear Tree the dinasoar lot could  have left a path around the perimeter.I did message them but as usual with everyone, no reply.And the bins are inside, what few there are.No big open spaces, farcical

Peter Yale ● 11d

Gunnersbury, Walpole, Boston Manor  - all with large areas partitioned off from residents. Now much of the wonderful Pear Tree Park is unavailable because of a dinosaur festival. Lammas Park has been a write-off for a couple of years. Ealing Common is frequently occupied and much of it is a mess.  Now Elthorne. People need PARKS!!!!!!

Susan Hamlyn ● 11d

This was an event planned to be held over two sites. Elthorne Park and one in Leeds. For whatever reason the event to Elthorne Park is not going ahead but on the organisers page they are offering transport, as an alternative  to a refund, to the site in Leeds, I wonder how many will take that up.

N V Brooks ● 16d

I wonder how nany tickets were sold. Hopefully those who purchased tickets (still on sale BTW) will get a full refund.

N V Brooks ● 16d

It's interesting to note that this festival has been cancelled at the last minute and that the organisers are still selling tickets less than 12 hours before the festival was due to start - tickets at £70 per ticket Reports indicate that the organisers have not engaged with the council about the eventMaybe the  council and local licensing groups should have shown a greater due diligence before engaging with the organisation.I pity local residents close to Elthorne Park who will still be dealing with the failure of this tomorrow when people turn up to find Elthorne Park and discover our local park devoid of a stage. music and the smell of festival food.Any organisation that  had their email contacts  bouncing back at the beginning of May ( see my posts 2nd May ) should have raised suspicions.

Bill Trenchard ● 16d

Don't forget that Walpole Park has been used for such events for twenty odd years - the Beer festival and the Blues/Jazz festival and long may they continue. Ealing Council appear to think that any park can be used, are we going to stand for this?

Peter Tolhust ● 96d

It's not just Gunnersbury Park that is more or less off limits for the summer months and no longer an access for all safe Park.  Boston Manor is being hawked as a venue and much of Walpole is cordoned off. The questions and fears that were raised many times going back several years and simply dismissed by councillors and 'advisors' have pretty much all borne out to be true and worse.The benefits to local people are all PR nonsense and if you do live here, they must thing we are all soft touches and believe them.  Unless you have had a lobotomy its all around to see and one does wonder where all the money - particularly with Gunnersbury, really goes ?    The damage locally and to the parks annually must hoover much of that up.

Raymond Havelock ● 97d

Counsel are a bunch of scumbags.

Nick Roll ● 101d

Labour, Conservative, Liberal etc , all had their day.Need a new refreshing party who listens & acts for the people.Old style Conservatives were good, like Refiorm now.As for the turn out rates, shows why voters are disillusioned

Peter Yale ● 101d

The Conservatives are toast in Ealing. The rout in 2022 was due to the inability of the local electorate to distinguish between local and national policies something that pervades local democracy.  Why it is very likely that there will be yet another labour majority in 2026, less than a year away for the elections, one hopes that there will finally be some opposition to the totalitarian approach of this Council. It will be good to see our local councillors as we do every four years as it proves they can take their noses out of the trough long enough to at least campaign for votes.

N V Brooks ● 101d

I'm not a Labour voter in any way shape or form, but this looks only headed one way despite evry time somebody saying "Ealing labour are toast in this upcoming election..2010  Labour 40 Cons 24 Libdems 5 -2014  Labour 53 Cons 12 Libdems 4 -2018  Labour 57 Cons 8 Libdems 4 -2022  Labour 59 Cons 5 Libdems 6 -

Paul James ● 101d

>People must remember this next year when we finally get the chance to vote for change and hold them to account!Finally? Didn't Ealing Labour get voted in just a year or so and four years before that and four years before that and four years before that despite that phrase being peppered across ealing today forums every year?

Paul James ● 101d

Worth noting that if you try to email any of the email addresses on the website - the email bounces back with the note that the domain doesn't exist Could this be Ealing's version of the Fyne Festival and just a big con?No confirmed artists?Also the webpage has some wonderful inconsistencies including information about the site not wheelchair-accessible but at the same time selling a wheelchair usersticket.

Bill Trenchard ● 101d

Completely agree. I’ve written to my local councillor — let’s see how long it takes to get a reply.  We urgently need accountability in Ealing. It’s not healthy for any one party to dominate the council. When that happens, they stop listening, ignore local concerns, and treat the place like their own personal patch.Put simply: they stop caring. People must remember this next year when we finally get the chance to vote for change and hold them to account!

Mark callan ● 101d

..... and day 1 of the much-longer-established Blues Festival in Walpole Park.

David Dix ● 102d

Just look at what's happened to Gunnersbury Park, the commercialisation and destruction of the Park that has taken place under the autocratic rule of the CIC (Community Interest Company, ha ha! really stands for Commercial Interest Company). Non-stop festivals, set-up and dismantle through the entire summer, large parts of the park fenced off, lorry traffic through the park, huge damage that is never repaired, loss of wildlife habitats, etc. etc. Be afraid, be very afraid.

maria isabel cunha ● 102d

This well used local park is no place for a commercial music festival, particularly as it is sided by large residential areas. I wasn't aware Elthorne, Hanwell or even the wider Ealing area had any particular Portuguese-speaking African community. This is pure commercial use, closing off a local park to the local community. Who allows these things? Our beloved Labour councillors!

Steve Chilcott ● 102d

Well, as there is no parking outside Elthorne Park anymore and resident's parking is restricted I do hope the wardens have new ribbons in their printers.I had no realised that 1it was the same weekend as Junction 2

N V Brooks ● 104d

I find it quite unbelievable that Ealing Council have allowed this without out any consolation or informing local residents at all, looking at the website another concern is they state "Parking: Conveniently available outside the park" so for a council that promotes active travel they turn a blind eye to this when they are being paid a hefty sum, also the fact the festival will be on for one day how long will the park be a no go area during setup and take down, have Ealing done noise surveys, how many tickets are they selling, who will be controlling traffic, parking security, the event is from 12pm to 10pm, with two stages, lots of questions to be answered, it’s also the same weekend as the Junction 2 festival at Boston Manor park!!

Declan Devine ● 104d

As a regular user of this park (particularly as the Lammas swamp makes it less attractive), I would like to understand who will ensure that the park is not damaged and that any issues caused by stages and vehicles are rapidly resolved.Also, I'm concerned that with any festival, there are elements of anti-social behaviour - Drink, drugs, litter, local streets and gardens being used as toilets and noise before, during and after the event. I would be keen to hear from the council, the police and the organisers what plans and contingencies they have in place to address these issues.

Bill Trenchard ● 104d

N V Brooks ● 104d

The music genres being played at least look interesting with a mix of East African 'Zydeco', Accordion-based Funana and an uptempo two-step along with other stuff.

N V Brooks ● 104d

The chances of councillor Dismal even noticing are pretty remote, let alone responding to residents concerns.If the disruption is kept to a couple or three days then that would be barely acceptable. However any loss of access to public open space for longer than that borders on criminal behavior

N V Brooks ● 105d

Welcome to the weird world of Ealing council. Elthorne is just the latest local park to be turned into a commercial venue, in the name of raising money for the upkeep of the parks, allegedly.Gunnersbury has hosted huge music events in recent years, with more to come this summer. The new ‘regional park’ is already earmarked for hosting major festivals and events.It’s not so much the event itself that inconveniences locals, it’s the weeks before and after when set ups and clear ups are done, with large swathes of public land inaccessible.Still, you can console yourself by taking a trip to the fetid swamps in Lammas Park while Elthorne is closed.As for the local councillors taking any notice of residents? More chance of Brentford winning the Champions League.

Simon Hayes ● 105d