A violent burglary in which swords were held to a woman’s throat is among the reasons new restrictions will be placed on music events at Gunnersbury Park.
The West London park, which hosts some of the city’s largest festivals and events, will now do so under stricter conditions enforced by the local council after residents forced a licensing review on the matter. Among the representations made was that of a resident whose mother was burgled at sword-point, with the noise from a festival taking place at the park used as cover.
Hounslow Council’s Licensing Panel met on March 27 to rule on a licensing review brought forward by the Gunnersbury Park Garden Estate Residents Association. It argued that the scale and frequency of festivals in recent years have severely undermined licensing objectives.
The panel heard extensive testimony from the resident association and the licence holder (Gunnersbury Estate 2026 CIC), council authorities and local residents. The association argued that nearby residents suffer from severe noise pollution, unmanaged crowds and a spike in crime when a licensed event takes place.
The existing noise allowance of 75 decibels was too loud, according to the association’s Chair, Pete Bainbridge – something which leads to over 600 noise complaints a year. He added: “We are not here to… get rid of any event, all the events, we’re here to reduce the scale and make them safe and fair for everybody.”
The Estate argued that it had never breached licencing conditions and had even voluntarily reduced its noise limit from 75 to 73 decibels over the last three years. It submitted an updated list of conditions which it proposed, seeking to formalise noise bands and the categorisation of events.
Hounslow Council officers confirmed there were very few licensing issues, and noted that the limits had been maintained, although it had been agreed that the licence working lacked transparency and required updating.
Home invasion at sword point – a festival masked the noise
Stephen Peiris, a policing panel Chair and resident in Gunnersbury, described the night three men armed with swords broke into his mother’s home whilst a festival was taking place in Gunnersbury Park.
According to the resident, the noise of the nearby festival was so loud that it entirely masked the sound of the break-in. Inside her bedroom, the men threw her to the floor, smashed her jewellery box and two of the men held swords to her throat.
He told the panel that a police detective later suggested the criminals likely chose the night of the festival to use the noise as cover. They successfully escaped by disappearing into the festival crowd.
Six days later, the panel returned the decision and noted that whilst the police and relevant other authorities had not formally objected to events, the sense of feeling within the local community could not be ignored. The committee found that the “sheer weight of evidence” from local residents proved that change was needed.
What’s changed?
Noise management
Despite residents pleading for a 65 decibel cap, the panel ruled that noise from any event other than a small event must not exceed 75 decibels over a 15-minute period.
Whilst the noise limit is unchanged, for any large or special event, an independent noise consultant must now be hired, and their raw data must be handed over to council enforcement officers on demand.
The Estate must also produce a detailed noise management plan and submit it to Environmental Health for approval at least 28 days before an event – if it is not approved the event cannot take place.
Sanitation, odour control and waste
Residents had complained of intense smells because festival staff were jet-washing portable toilets causing human waste to spray directly onto the grass. Kareem Daniels, a local resident told the panel that “when you walk in that bit of the park, it really stinks, you can smell human faeces really badly”.
Toilets must now be placed as far away from residential properties as reasonably possible, and organisers must keep written records proving the toilets are being cleaned to minimise the stench. The new licence explicitly states that toilet waste or cleansing fluids “shall not in any circumstances be deposited onto the land”.
Litter picking is now mandatory not just inside the park, but across key entrance and exit routes, which now must be mapped out and agreed with council officers. The Access and Egress Plan must actively try to discourage festival-goers from walking through residential areas.
Event categorisation and caps
Residents raised concerns that they felt the definition of event sizes are too loose and that the number of people – often 30,000 festival goers – would flood the local area. The Estate wanted to define a “small event” as holding up to 3,500 people, a “medium event” up to 10,000 people, and a “large event” up to 20,000 people.
Councillor Joanna Biddolph, ward member for the area in which Gunnersbury Park sits, argued that this attempt to make small events larger and louder was “outrageous”, given that the community’s core complaint was that events were already too large and too loud. The panel rejected this proposal, and instead implemented new legally binding capacity limits: a “small event” is limited to 499 attendees, a “medium event” between 500 and 5,000 people, a “large event” would permit between 5,001 and 10,000 on site at any one time, and “special events” would allow between 10,000 and 29,999 at one time.
The panel added a strict clause stating “for the avoidance of doubt, no event is to exceed more than 29,999 people in any one time”.
Drugs, glass and crime policy
The community had reported an influx of drug dealing, burglaries and antisocial behaviour masked by festivals, as described by Stephen Peiris. The new licence requires the creation of a formal drugs policy.
This will be drafted in conjunction with the police and must include arrangements for drug amnesty bins. Additionally, another new condition requires every organiser to maintain an incident log recording all crimes, ejections, incidents of violence, and seizures of drugs or weapons – this must be available to the police on request.
Condition 88 orders a full ban on glass containers at any event. Any trader found selling drinks in glass will face immediate closure.
Mandatory community communication
Local residents detailed how they felt that communication from the Estate was deeply flawed, and had led to a breakdown in trust. A new licence condition means the Estate is now legally required to employ a dedicated resident liaison manager for large and special events.
They must also provide a dedicated resident liaison email address that is monitored regularly (no less than every day) throughout the build-up, live event, and break-down days. Furthermore, an event schedule must be published on their website three months in advance, and individual communications must be sent to local residents at least two months before the first event.
Philip is a Local Democracy Reporter covering Ealing, Hillingdon and Hounslow, with a focus on council decisions, housing, planning, licensing and community stories across west London.
