Lambeth Council slammed for £1.5k spend on tube line festival

A South London council has been criticised after spending almost £1,500 of development money on a festival that celebrated the Northern line extension to Battersea.

Lambeth Council used the Section 106 cash – money paid by developers to compensate for the impact of a project on a local area – to co-host an event marking the opening of the new line to Battersea Power Underground Station in Wandsworth in 2021. 

The £1.1 billion lengthening of the line southwest from Kennington saw two new Tube stations open, one at Nine Elms in Lambeth and another at Battersea Power Station in Wandsworth.

Labour-run Lambeth Council marked the opening of the new stations by co-hosting the weekend Line of Light festival in October 2021 with then Tory-controlled Wandsworth Council. It was billed as an "outdoor celebration of the people and communities who live above the new Northern line extension, with a trail of sound and light." 

A breakdown of Lambeth Council's use of Section 106 money between 2021 and 2022 shows it spent £1,471 of cash from developers on the event. 

Tim Briggs, an ex-Lambeth Conservative councillor, branded the council's use of Section 106 funds a waste of money. Mr Briggs, who was councillor for Clapham Common until losing his seat at the May 2022 local elections, said: "Section 106 money is money from property developers to pay for the infrastructure that supports the development – roads, community spaces etc. 

"It is typical of the wealthy middle-class Labour councillors running Lambeth that they waste money on parties for their friends, instead of creating opportunities and decent housing for people who, after 50 years of Labour, are still poor, divided from the mainstream of society, and voting Labour."

The festival, which ran across two evenings in October 2021, featured light projections on buildings between Kennington Underground Station in Lambeth and Battersea Power Underground Station in Wandsworth, accompanied by music. 

A description of the event from 2021 said a "daisy-chain of high-density light beams" would illuminate the new Underground stations, painting "the route of the tunnels in the sky to create the Line of Light."

So-called "festival hubs," featuring free activities for families and pop-up food stalls were also set up outside the two new Underground stations for the duration of the festival. 

Cllr Sonia Winifred, Lambeth's cabinet member for culture at the time, described the festival as a celebration of people who lived around the new 3km line. She said: "The Line of Light festival is our way of celebrating those communities who live above the extended underground route. 

"The theme is togetherness and connectivity, which is why I hope communities, both old and new, can use this as a chance to meet and celebrate the uniqueness of where they live."

Lambeth Council has been contacted but not comment before publication.