When Wandsworth Council unveiled its new Events in Parks Policy last week, there was one change that stood out immediately: large commercial events (over 2,499 attendees) would be banned from Wandsworth Common — but still permitted on Tooting Common, King George’s Park, and other green spaces across the borough.
The final policy, signed off by Cabinet on 14 July, made no attempt to explain this discrepancy. No data, no risk assessments, no ecological evidence. Just a blanket exemption for one park — and silence on the logic.
But internal emails, obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, offer a glimpse into what may have really happened.
“The campaign against large events is growing”
In early 2025, Enable — the council’s events contractor — submitted licensing applications to host large-scale festivals on both Wandsworth and Tooting Commons, as well as King George’s Park. The response was fast and fierce.
Internal council emails reveal rising concern among officers. In one message dated 21 January, a senior official wrote:
“The campaign against large events is growing. There are posters up on noticeboards and it’s doing the rounds of WhatsApp groups, NappyValleyNet etc. I have to say I’m not clear myself how a 10,000-person event on two small sites on Wandsworth Common would work.”
Another flagged the late-night alcohol licence request — until midnight on weekends — as clearly out of step with the borough’s existing policy, which caps event finish times at 10pm.
While the council attempted to prepare “reassuring comms,” it didn’t get that far.
Faced with 271 formal objections to the Wandsworth Common licence — compared to just 18 for Tooting Common — Enable withdrew the application entirely. The same happened for Tooting Common, but the sheer scale of opposition for Wandsworth appears to have spooked decision-makers.
Pressure works — for some parks
Fast-forward six months, and the final events policy enshrines the outcome: Wandsworth Common is protected from all large events. Tooting Common is not.
The Friends of Tooting Common were left baffled. In their deputation to Cabinet this week, they asked for an explanation — none was given. They asked for the same restriction to be applied to their common — it was not.
And while the Cabinet appeared unified in its decision, some of the political contradictions that result from having unexplained policy differences have begun to show.
Cllr Rosemary Birchall, a member [pdf] of the Wandsworth Common Management Advisory Committee, which oversees Wandsworth Common, objected to events on her local common. But she also sits on the Licensing Committee — and participated in approving the Country on the Common event on Tooting Common on 9 April.
That event drew 9,000 people and would now be banned from Wandsworth Common under the new policy. The contrast has prompted concerns about fairness, consistency — and whether councillors’ decisions are being shaped more by postcode than principle.
Selective listening?
The council insists its new policy is based on consultation — but hasn’t explained why similar objections on Tooting Common didn’t lead to similar protections.
And while the Cabinet praised itself for being a “listening administration,” critics say the decision reveals a more familiar political instinct: respond decisively when pressure is local, loud, and electorally sensitive — and brush past quieter communities that ask politely.
Letting people speak is not the same as listening. True listening means taking public feedback seriously, being open to challenge, and adjusting course when needed. Consultation without change risks becoming a gesture, not a process — and that distinction matters in a council that claims to put residents first.
This is a worrying report, pointing to an alarming lack of consistency and fairness, if not maladministration. Could it also be sheer disregard by Wandsworth for all interested and affected parties? – Tooting Bec Common being principally on the boundary with Lambeth and with at least half of its users being Lambeth residents. Wandsworth Council owns and manages Tooting Bec Common, but it holds the common in trust on behalf of the public – and the public is not just the public in Wandsworth, it is the public in Lambeth too who are equally, if not more, affected by matters concerning the common.
One of the tricky problems of large events on Tooting Common is that half of the common is bordered by Lambeth residents who are affected by noise and disruption, but Wandsworth Council don’t engage with them. So at the license committe to approve the recent Country on the Common officers hadn’t consulted with Lambeth Environmental Health officers despite telling the committee they had ! Plus surprise surprise the meeting was told that the part of the common chosen for the event “included its ability to face away from residents in the south of the site ” – yes they’re the Wandsworth residents. It may be too difficult to have cross council discussions !