| Topic: | Re:No live music events in Gunnersbury this summer | |
| Posted by: | John England | |
| Date/Time: | 07/06/26 08:40:00 |
| I had to join this forum as one of my neighbours insisted. I see some of the same names you see on Next Door. People who live in Bedford Park, Isleworth or have done work for Ealing Council. All of them use insults like nimbys and attack. All of them live far away not to be affected by cocaine use, car break ins, crowds, urinating and exposure. All support the rich promoters and dismiss regular people. All can easily go to the various purpose built event venues like the Shepherd's Bush Empire, Hammersmith Apollo, Exhibition White City and now the Bee's Stadium instead. They have options. We don't. We live here and won't move home so that an American large corporation can make profits and the greedy councils can enrich themselves. Yes! Because why is this not done in any other park? How come there is money for those other parks? But here the secretive CIC can hire anyone as a contractor without a transparent tender process and can avoid publishing full accounts or any scrutiny. This public land was just rented to them without proper consultation. They operated at a loss last year. The question is why? They had more events than ever before. So something smells wrong here. I am sure the likes of Events Umbrella and Vanguardia who they hire have made a profit however. I don't really deal with the Residents Association in question- there were actually several associations that had formally complained and spoke at the licence review- but they were correct to show a better, less impactful solution to restoring the various buildings. I question the CIC CEOs nonsense at the Residents Meeting this week- that he failed to advertise- about needing 35,000 per grant to apply as just a desire to continue using a public park as an event arena. They have a charity but it is such in name only. At the end of the day many of us attempted talking to them and reaching a compromise. The CIC and councils just doubled down. Perhaps a covenant legal challenge is in our future, where the councils will use our taxes to defend the rich foreign corporations wasting it on solicitors. Hopefully they see sense and listen to those of us who have had enough of being ignored and attacked by those who are supposed to protect us. But let's be realistic, they won't. So far they have doubled down and said they won't make any meaningful changes. I think this will continue until some of the councils’ leadership is held personally responsible and there are legal consequences. PS. Just to address some false claims on here: No, the park can't be sold for development. There is a covenant protecting it so spreading false information is not helpful. In fact the councils tried this several times in its history and failed because of the covenant. Also why Friends of Gunnersbury Park was created as the Georgian Society. As for it being run down, it being fixed has nothing to do with the CIC or events. The Bees built the sports center and maintain it and the sports fields. The museum and orangery were restored with money from the National Lottery, only to sit mostly empty and be used for private events and run down again. The cafe was rebuilt with insurance and council money. The CIC gives back 300,000 to Ealing council from the 500,000 they receive from both councils to cut grass, maintain trees and bins. So it's our taxes paying for most of the maintenance. Removing graffiti and other odd jobs are done by the Community Payback Scheme by the Ministry of Justice, so offenders working for free. If anything the events just pay for more events and more profits for the organisers. As for the young people argument, there are plenty of purpose built venues as listed above and many many many other festivals that are better managed and do not cause so much crime and disruption. But also let's discuss how young people need to pay often double and even quadruple for an event compared to just 5 years ago. Not just inflated ticket prices, everything inside is also extremely expensive. Events are oversold and it's one big mosh pit. The reason behind this is corporations profits as the likes of Festival Republic owned by Americans Live Nation -who also own Ticket Master- slowly but surely become a monopoly. Meanwhile our councils pay for policing, planning and cleanup subsidising their profits from our taxes. Purpose built venues struggle to survive while competing with councils and culture is damaged. They will pay for PR and so called experts to justify this at any cost. Protected wildlife species? Who cares? Damaged trees? Again no one cares. Crime and drugs? No, corporate profits are more important. Someone is profiting from all of this but it isn't young people or taxpayers. |