Croydon council withdraws licence application to hold huge events in two parks

By Tara O’Connor, Local Democracy Reporter

Applications for permission to hold events attracting up to 15,000 people to two Croydon parks have been temporarily withdrawn following concerns from local residents.

Separate applications for Purley Way Playing Fields and Addington Park were submitted by Croydon council.

The council said it was applying for the licences so third-party organisations could run events including concerts and cinema screenings.

The two applications included the sale of alcohol and covered live music, recorded music and performance of dance and films.

They would be valid from 10am-10pm each day, and up to 9pm on Sundays.

Representative for Addington and Selsdon Village, Councillor Helen Pollard, said that residents were concerned about potentially noisy events in Addington Park.

She believes that these concerns are one of the reasons the council has now withdrawn the applications.

Cllr Pollard said: “You can’t have alcohol and music on any night of the year. I said I wouldn’t support it unless there was some consultation with residents every time there was an event.”

But she said she would not be opposed to all events in the park off Kent Gate Way.

“I think it depends on the kind of event, it is not some kind of rave venue,” she added.

“I think residents aren’t going to object to everything, but (the application) would give the council carte blanche to do whatever they like.

“They were going to hand that licence over to someone who was running an event, we didn’t want that lack of control.”

Both applications were still available to read on the council website on Monday, but have since been removed.

The council has now said it will consider reapplying for the licences in the new year.

A spokesman for Croydon council said: “We often apply for entertainment licences for the borough’s parks in case established event management companies propose to run concerts, cinema showings or other third-party cultural programmes, and they would need to temporarily have this licence as part of the approval process.

“We recently submitted two such applications for Purley Way Playing Fields and Addington Park and informed local representatives, but have now temporarily withdrawn them until the new year when we will review demand for these kinds of events in light of ongoing Covid-19 restrictions.”

Pictured top: Purley Way Playing Fields