A park has been left in a muddy mess after a weekend of music, with a senior councillor pledging to have the churned up grass made good and paid for by the event organisers.
The large grassy area used for children’s after-school and weekend football was damaged by deep tyre tracks in Hove Park.
The damage appears to have been caused during the removal of staging and other equipment after the Levellers and Passenger headlined concerts on Saturday (5 September) and Sunday.
Labour councillor David McGregor, the council’s cabinet member for the economy, culture, heritage and tourism, posted about the mess on Facebook.
Councillor McGregor said: “The event organisers will be paying for this mess to be fixed.”
He said: “You may have seen the mess of the grass from the Passenger concert this weekend. It’s totally unacceptable.
“We’ve instructed someone to scope out what work will be needed to fix this urgently and we will be billing the event organiser for the work.
“There will be no delay in getting this sorted. We’ll commission the work, get it done and then bill the organisers for the cost.
“Events are a key part of what makes our city so special but we’re not putting up with this kind of mess.”
Conservative councillor Ivan Lyons, who represents Westdene and Hove Park, thanked residents for contacting him about the “terrible mess”.
Councillor Lyons said: “The way that the park was left by the organisers has been totally unsatisfactory. It may have rained since the concert but to leave it like this is totally unsatisfactory.”
The organiser, Joy Concerts, said: “We worked in close collaboration with local authorities ahead of Live at Hove Park to plan for the impact of varying weather conditions.
“Following a dry summer, heavy rainfall during the post-event de-rig left some areas of the park waterlogged, with essential vehicle movements causing parts of the ground to become muddy and churned up.
“Arrangements for assessing and reinstating any affected areas, including our responsibility for the associated costs, were agreed with Brighton and Hove City Council in advance as part of the site hire agreement.
“In line with that agreement, we have met with council contractors and plans for restoration work have been approved.
“This includes rolling the ground to restore a level surface and reseeding areas so that the grass can regrow.”
BHCC are only interested in how much money they can make from the city’s open spaces
Same goes for the K.A.
The original purpose of our public parks was to improve public heath, provide green space for fresh air and exercise. They also help to fight pollution, encourage biodiversity in city centres and help to control temperatures and humidity. Green zones in city centres are also crucial to social cohesion. Brighton Council treats them as little more than cash cows with no consideration as to their intended purpose.
Totally agree. I also find it breathtaking that every time this happens – which is after EVERY event held in our public green spaces – the response from the council is one of surprise, along with promises that they will get the organisers to rectify. Why isn’t someone from the council policing how sites are left BEFORE the event organisers leave? Can the council not learn the lesson from the hundreds of times this has happened before?
I’m going to say this again if B&H news will let me. Our parks are not suitable for these large scale events. The mess is totally predictable, however the weather has been kind and it could have been a lot worse. We yet have events in east Brighton park and Stanmer park I believe so it’s going to happen again and again. Not much point in reporting it really. If these events can’t be held in an indoor venue or Black Rock they shouldn’t be held at all.
I think the council need to consider preventative mitigations. There are things you can do to protect the ground from being trampled into a quagmire both in ad-hoc and long-term.
Ignoring plausibility, the cost of matting, plus its installation and removal on a festival site, is prohibitive especially if it is of a type that remains effective a) during and after rainfall and b) under sustained load from heavy plant.
One has to accept some damage to grass is unavoidable. This will dismay the keyboard illiterati who do not operate festivals but apparently know better.
You ignore the fact that the rain was post the event and forecasted. The organisers could have put wooden planks down for removing the stage but failed to do so as it would have delayed the deconstruction. Also, even at 6pm Wedessday, c60 toilets were still sat there in the park with several pallets of what looked like toilet waste.
Indeed, hence why considered mitigations and not absolute mitigations.
We can talk about the finer points of mesh if you like; value for money over time; value in protecting the ground, aiding repair; focusing on high impact areas only where vehicles are expected to keep costs down, etc.
And it’s one of a variety of mitigations that could be considered, but it’s worth having that conversation.
It appears that The Levellers have taken Levelling the Land rather too literally, having apparently succeeded in leaving Hove Park not particularly level at all.
Passenger, meanwhile, has departed, leaving rather more tracks behind than one might expect from a gentleman of that name.
Councillor David McGregor assures us that the damage is “totally unacceptable” and that there will be “no delay” in putting it right. How reassuring. Although one is left wondering whether there might have been some advantage in applying that admirable sense of urgency before the heavy vehicles churned up a public park.
Of course the organisers should pay for any damage they cause. But surely the council’s responsibility is not merely to inspect the devastation afterwards, commission the repairs and send someone a bill.
One might rather have hoped that, before permitting a large-scale event on a grassy public space, somebody would have considered how the staging was going to be brought in and removed without leaving the place looking as though Passenger had taken One Way across the football pitches.
Still, I suppose prevention is terribly old-fashioned. Much better to allow the damage to occur and then demonstrate one’s administrative efficiency by explaining how quickly the invoice will be issued.
Yours, with perfectly level expectations,
Viscount Biscuit
Viscount Biscuits, one fears your scepticism may be rather well founded.
One feels distinctly less persuaded by the Council’s stern assurances than perhaps was intended. Councillor McGregor might care to make the short journey across our fair city to Preston Park, where some of us can still point out the scars – and, in places, what appear remarkably like residual trenches – left by the Foodies Festival of 2024.
One distinctly remembers similarly confident assurances then. The damage was “very surface level”, we were told, would be “easily rectified”, and naturally the organisers would meet the cost. How wonderfully reassuring it all sounded.
Lady Bracknell has reached an age at which she attaches rather more importance to a lawn actually being restored than to the vigour with which its restoration is announced.
By all means send the bill. But perhaps this time we might also stay around long enough to see whether the grass grows back.
Yours, with horticultural concern,
Augusta
I was at the park the other day and they also appeared to have left 1m3 water tanks strewn around there that had been used for sewage. They were just open and kids were playing there as its right next to the school. It was absolutely disgusting, this company shouldn’t be allowed to run any more events in Brighton parks because they’re just not responsible at all