The People's Park · since 1845
AEG has applied to fence off about a third of Victoria Park's main fields for up to 75 days a year — all of it in the summer — every year until 2031. You can object — it takes about five minutes.
Late comments are usually accepted right up until the council makes its decision — so it is still worth objecting after this date.
What's happening
AEG Presents has applied to Tower Hamlets Council for permission to use the eastern side of Victoria Park for large commercial festivals — including All Points East and LIDO — for up to 75 days a year — all in the summer — for six years.
Most of those days are not concerts. They are the weeks of building and dismantling stages, fencing, compounds and back-of-house infrastructure. During that time the park's principal south-eastern fields are fenced off behind hoarding and closed to the public. The application area covers about 24.8 hectares — close to a third of the whole park.
You can read the application in full on the council's planning register: Tower Hamlets planning register — search for PA/26/00459.
Live music is part of Victoria Park's history, and events can lawfully run for up to 28 days a year without planning permission. Our objection is not to the festivals — it is to enclosing the park's main fields for up to 75 days a year, every summer for six years, nearly three times what the law already allows, on protected open land.
How to object
Anyone can comment — you do not have to live in Tower Hamlets. It takes about five minutes.
Find the application on the planning register (search PA/26/00459) and comment there, or email development.control@towerhamlets.gov.uk quoting PA/26/00459/A1.
State clearly that you OBJECT to the application, and give your name and postal address — an objection cannot be counted without them.
Say why, in your own words. Pick the points that matter most to you from below, and add your own experience of the park.
Protected open land
Victoria Park is Metropolitan Open Land — protected as strongly as the Green Belt — and a Grade II* registered park. National, London and the council's own policies say a park like this should not be enclosed, and allow only temporary uses that help the public enjoy it. Fencing off around a third of it behind 3.4 metre hoarding, with stages and compounds, for up to 75 days each summer is the opposite.
Noise
Most of the 75 days are building and dismantling, not concerts — a month or more of plant, generators, sound checks and reversing lorries each summer, for six summers. AEG's own noise report accepts the events run well above the recommended limit for parks, sets no measured limit at all for the build-and-break weeks, and measured its "baseline" in February rather than summer.
Traffic & air
AEG's transport document records 687 vehicle arrivals for a single festival — 160 of them articulated lorries — yet states plainly that it "has not conducted any assessment of highway impact". The whole borough is an Air Quality Management Area; the scheme is not "air quality neutral" on AEG's own figures; and its own dust plan admits "significant" dust releases and health complaints at the 2025 festival.
Access when it matters
In 2026 the main fields are occupied from early August to early September — the second half of the school summer holidays. In later years the pattern falls twice, in June and again in August. These are exactly the weeks children, and families who cannot afford to leave London, most need the park.
Fairness
The council's own evidence shows a shortage of children's play space and poor provision for disabled children. For families in flats without gardens, the park's flat, step-free open fields are the main place to play and gather. The council has a legal duty to weigh that impact on children and disabled residents, yet the application provides nothing to assess it.
Six years
The festivals already happen; what is new is the scale of the ask — up to 75 days every summer, fixed until 2031, on a park protected for the public. A short, one- or two-year permission would let the real impacts be judged on evidence, with a chance to think again — rather than the whole thing being signed off for six years at once.
Two roles
Tower Hamlets is the landowner, the events partner and the recipient of the hire income — as well as the authority deciding this application. A decision of this kind needs to be, and to be seen to be, taken with an open mind, and the financial arrangements between the council and AEG should be published before any decision is made.
Not real access
AEG offers "cross paths" through the fenced site — but only during build and take-down, only "where possible", and not on event days, when the fields are closed completely. A gated corridor past hoarding, stewards and bag searches is not the same as an open park, and does not make up for the loss of the fields.
Heritage
The park is a Grade II* registered landscape designed by James Pennethorne, with listed structures and scheduled monuments nearby. Historic England, formally consulted on this application, says the events cause harm that must be given "very considerable weight", and warns of cumulative long-term damage to grass, trees and soils if repeated each year.
Wildlife & trees
The park is a designated wildlife site — home to bats, breeding birds and mature trees. AEG's own ecology report admits a significant effect on bats, and cites festival-driven falls in bat activity of 65–79% at a comparable park; its tree report concedes vehicles, parking and crowds within the protected root zones of mature trees. The promised habitat improvements are unsecured, deferred to a 30-year plan that does not yet exist — against a six-year permission.
What happens next
Once the consultation closes, the council weighs every objection, consults bodies such as Historic England, and then decides. We are asking for that decision to be made by the Development Committee — elected councillors, in a public meeting — rather than by officers under delegated powers.
If it goes to the Development Committee, residents can register to speak for a few minutes — one of the most effective things you can do. We'll post the date here as soon as it is set — it also appears on the council's committee pages.
Your ward councillors represent you, and can ask officers to support residents or call the application in to committee. Find yours: Tower Hamlets · Hackney.
Planning decisions turn on planning reasons, not on numbers of angry messages. Keeping everything calm, factual and about the park carries far more weight with the committee — and it protects a refusal from being challenged later.
The committee's membership and public meeting dates are published on the council's website: Tower Hamlets democracy & committees.
Spread the word
Most objections happen because a neighbour mentioned it. Two minutes of sharing is worth as much as anything else you can do.
Print the A4 poster — or two per page as A5 flyers — for windows, noticeboards, stairwells and the school gate.
Open the print sheetSend the link to your street's group chat, residents' association or local forum — wherever your neighbours already talk.
Press, offers of help, or planning and legal expertise: keepvictoriaparkopen@proton.me · An email to us is not an objection — objections go to the council, above.
Questions
Yes. The council must weigh the planning issues raised by residents, give reasons for its decision, and take account of statutory consultees such as Historic England. Well-argued objections — especially from many different people, in their own words — are a material part of that process. A neighbouring council's handling of park festivals was recently overturned twice in the High Court.
Yes. Anyone can comment on a planning application, wherever they live. Victoria Park sits on the boundary between Tower Hamlets and Hackney, and the effects — noise, traffic, loss of the park — cross it. Just make clear you are objecting and give your name and address.
Your name and address appear on the public planning register, because an objection has to be attributable to be counted. Your signature, phone number and email address are normally withheld from public view — see the council's guidance on commenting.
No. Events can lawfully take place for up to 28 days a year without planning permission, and we do not object to that. We object to enclosing the park's main fields for up to 75 days every summer, for six years — a large, long-term change to a protected public park.
The council considers the representations, consults statutory bodies, and then decides — ideally at a public planning committee rather than by officers alone. Late comments are usually accepted until the decision is made, so it is still worth objecting after the published date. We'll post the committee date here as soon as it is set.
Write in your own words, choose two or three points that matter to you, and add your own experience of the park. Identical, copied letters carry far less weight than genuine individual ones.