Settlement reached in legal row over skateboarding at Southbank

A lengthy legal dispute has been settled involving the London Borough of Lambeth and skateboarding at the capital’s Southbank Centre, avoiding a further round of court hearings.

The row began when the centre – a complex of theatres and cultural buildings in central London – devised a redevelopment that would have removed a riverside undercroft used informally for many years by skateboarders.

They formed Long Live Southbank to challenge this and tried to register the undercroft as a village green.

Lambeth rejected that but accepted a later application to recognise the undercroft as an asset of community value.

In joint statement, Long Live Southbank and the Southbank Centre said they had agreed a binding planning agreement with Lambeth under which the undercroft would stay open for skateboarding, BMX riding and associated activities.

Long Live Southbank would now support Southbank Centre's Festival Wing project for the improvement of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery, on the basis that there would no longer be redevelopment of the undercroft.

Both sides withdrew their legal actions  - the centre’s challenge to registration as an asset of community value, and the skateboarders’ application for village green status and judicial review of Lambeth’s rejection of this. 

Lambeth leader Lib Peck said; “I’m pleased that Lambeth council was able to work with both sides and find an imaginative solution to resolve this.

“Shared public space in London is precious and Southbank Centre is a great asset to the country's cultural life. This agreement is a sensible way of protecting both and we can all now look forward.”

Proceedings for judicial review of the original decision on the village green question were partly heard in March and adjourned to September to allow Mrs Justice Lang to seek the Treasury Solicitor’s Department’s view on the interpretation of the restrictions on village green registration contained in the Growth & Infrastructure Act 2013 Act,

Mark Smulian