Monday 11th June was a day of meetings. EventLambeth and Lambeth Landscapes first met with the Field Day and Mighty Hoopla organisers and their reinstatement contractors Talbots to focus on ground reinstatement only. We reviewed progress on the work that Talbots had done over the weekend. This was verti-draining and chain harrowing which deals with compaction, assists with leveling out the ruts, encourages the grass to resurface and strengthens the roots. We then walked the event site footprint and reviewed all areas of damage and impact on the ground and agreed stage 2 reinstatement. Further details below.
The next meeting was the formal hand back meeting and EventLambeth, Lambeth Landscaping, Festival Operations Manager and Festival Site Manger did a full site audit of all the event site and document impact/damage and agreed process for all areas.
Our final meeting of the day was with Cllrs and members of the Brockwell Park Management Committee to update them on what was agreed in the earlier 2 meetings.
We have identified that there is 3 different approaches will apply to different areas of the park:
- Immediate reinstatement – these are area of significant damage where the grass will not return that will be cultivated, leveled and re-turfed
- Intermediate – these are areas where Lambeth Landscaping and Talbots are confident the grass will return – they will continue to verti-drain, chain harrow and over seed – these areas are expected to return in the coming 2 weeks
- Pending – these are areas where it is very unlikely that the grass will return – however these are also areas where Lambeth Country Show will have high footfall and / or structures over – therefore it was agreed that the approach is to make good these areas – verti-drain, chain harrow, level out (top soil) and then post country show reinstate by re-turfing
Immediate areas that have had a lot of damage are the top arena field – this is where the Barn structure was and at the bottom of the main path by Herne Hill Gate. Talbots are over the next 2 days preparing the ground for re-turfing. They anticipate being able to re-turf these areas on Friday and over the coming weekend. They will then have a programme of watering and managing the re-turfed areas to ensure that it thrives and knits. We will review these areas before the Lambeth Country Show starts to build and look at additional ground protection measures if they are required.
Intermediate areas – these are areas dotted over the park that will show progress over the coming week with a bit of rain and sun shine and additional stage one responses of over-seeding and chain harrowing. These areas on the top arena under the trees, majority of the Lido Field (apart from the very bottom) areas either side of the main path travelling up from Herne Hill gate.
Pending – the most notable area of ground that will be pending re-turfing is the very noticeable path across the bottom of the park from Herne Hill gate to Brockwell Lido. Some of the area closest to Herne Hill gate will be re-turfed immediately but the remaining area running across the path will be ‘made good’ – verti-drained, chain harrowed, leveled and over-seeded. This will deal with compaction and encourage any grass living to return. However it is noted that the majority will need to be re-turfed but as the Lambeth Country Show will have a high footfall through this area and so by delaying, there will be a better success with the work undertaken.
Over the coming days we will develop a map that shows you where the work is taking place using the 3 approaches detailed above.
We are aware that there are other non ground types of reinstatement required and will update on those shortly.
Image below is an area just up from the Herne Hill Gate where Immediate reinstatement will be taking place in the foreground – the yellow grass area will return to normal in coming days and the area beyond the rubbish bin will be Intermediate area where verti-draining and chain harrow should see grass return. We will share more images and information in the coming days
