Events in Potters Fields Park: permission sought for extra time

The Potters Fields Park Management Trust currently has permission to hold events on the riverside green space for 66 days a year.

The existing temporary planning consent expires in October this year, and the trust is seeking a new permission to run until 2025 with provision for up to 75 days of events annually.

"Income generated from events provides the primary source of income for Potters Fields Park Management Trust who are completely responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the Park," says the trust in its planning application.

"Due to the high usage of the park, maintenance and management costs are proportionally fairly high."

The trust says that increasing the maximum number of event days from 66 to 75 is justified because the Potters Fields alleyway next to the park is now more congested since completion of the One Tower Bridge development, meaning that setting up events in the park takes longer than before.

It is also argued that extra funds are needed to help with the maintenance of St John's Churchyard – between Tooley Street and Druid Street – which now comes under the trust's remit.

The trust says that the types of events it permits in the park have changed since it started letting out the space in 2007; it no longer closes areas of the park solely for corporate events, and organisers are required to keep events open to the public.

This summer the park is due to host a Mayor of London-backed football village during the Euro 2020 championship.

See planning application 20/AP/0210