Community festival axed after school demands organisers pay thousands to cut overgrown field
Organisers of the Chalkhill Reunion festival say they had no choice but to cancel the highly anticipated event this year after being informed of the "unfair" costs at the "11th hour"
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The Source Exclusive: Community festival axed after school demands organisers pay thousands to cut overgrown field
The highly anticipated festival held for former residents of the now demolished Chalk Hill Estate in Brent, London, was forced to cancel leaving organisers devastated.
STORY BY MELISSA SIGODO
OCTOBER 22, 2025
A local community group has been forced to axe their long-awaited festival after a school they provisionally hired demanded they pay nearly £3,000 to cut the overgrown grass in their own field.
Organisers of the Chalkhill Reunion festival say they had no choice but to scrap this year’s event which sees former residents who were moved out of the Chalk Hill estate in London, come together to release balloons for those who have died and award locals including dinner ladies in the community.
After 10 months of planning, one of the organisers Desmond Powell says he was left “devastated” when staff at Brent River College told his group that as part of the booking, they would need to pay £2,700 to professionally cut the “4ft grass” in the school’s field in order to use it.
Despite having previously used the outdoor space without footing the bill for its maintenance, Desmond who had made the enquiry in September 2024 claims that he was only informed of the state of the grass and the costs to cut it, three weeks before the agreed date of their event in July 2025.
With the funds they secured unable to cover the “unfair” cost, organisers say they were forced to cancel after looking forward to the festival for nearly a year.
Speaking to The Source, Desmond said: “I was devastated.
“We do balloon releases for those that have passed away. We do awards for people that have been dinner ladies in the area or community. It’s a real legacy event. We are a very close-knit community.
“A lot of people are very, very upset about it.”
Desmond says that he even had people volunteering to cut the grass with their own personal equipment just so that the event could go ahead.
He said: “People were volunteering left, right and centre to bring their lawnmowers out but obviously, it has to be done by an industrial company for health and safety reasons.
“It was really devastating, but the fact of the matter is, why didn’t they tell us about this before? They had about ten months to tell us that the grass is not in use.
“This was a late 11th hour request for us to cut the grass. We couldn’t find a £3,000. It ruined everything.”
After visiting the field, Desmond says he was “shocked” at the condition of the grass which was “4ft high” and required two separate cuts to meet health and safety standards.
He said: “We were shocked the field was so unkept and you have school children in the vicinity.
“The grass is like 4ft high. It’s unkept. The football pitch is unkept. So, what they’ve done is when they met us in July and they told us that we have to be responsible for cutting the grass.”
Desmond says the group reached out to Brent Council leader Councillor Muhammed Butt in an attempt to see if he could save the community event but that he “couldn’t help.”
Desmond said: “We bought banners we can keep but they say 2025 on them. We even informed the local police the event was happening.
“We need to get the word out about what happened. People are still asking about it till today.”
A spokesperson from Brent River College told The Source that they “outlined exactly what was required” for the booking, but in emails sent to the school which have been seen by our publication, Desmond’s team expressed how they were “taken aback” at being “advised about the cost three weeks before the event.”
In email correspondence, Desmond’s team first enquired about using the school and their Poplar Grove site in September 2024.
In October 2024, they followed up with the school to get clarity about whether the event could be held at their premises.
In November 2024, the reunion organisers were sent a “letting leaflet” by Brent River College outlining various prices for the areas for hire which included the field. In the leaflet also seen by The Source, there was no mention that the grass in the field would need to be cut or any costs relating to its preparation.
Desmond then emailed back the letting form he had filled out stating that the field would be needed for hire, and in May 2025 this was followed by the business manager of the school informing the organisers that there was availability on July 26, 2025.
In what organisers say was their first meeting to discuss the festival with the school on July 1, 2025, Desmond claims the group was only then informed that they would need to pay a charge to tackle the overgrown grass which left them scrambling at the last minute to secure the funds.
In subsequent emails, the organisers’s pleas for the school to pay half the cost associated with preparing the outdoor area were declined.
Desmond says that as the main issue around using the field was unresolved, the group did not pay the deposit for the event required by July 11, 2025, less than a week after they claim they were first informed about the cost.
In the end, the organiser says despite attempting to postpone the date of the reunion to September in order to locate the funds, the group was unable to and were ultimately forced to cancel.
Even though the community’s hopes were dashed this year, Desmond says he would still like to find a way to hold the beloved festival at the school next year.
Speaking to The Source, former Liberal Democrat Councillor for Brent Anton Georgiou labelled the demand for the group to pay for the grass to be cut “unfair”, adding that it was “common sense” not to require organisers to prepare a venue.
The former councillor said: “If you hire a hall for a party, the month before the party, you don’t get told by the people who run the hall, ‘oh by the way, there’s no heating in the hall, so you need to fix the boiler.’
“This isn’t fair to the organisers and to the community group that want to use the facilities.”
Brent River College and Poplar Grove provide education for pupils permanently excluded from school and when asked by The Source if students had access to the field, the school stated that children “rarely” used the area and instead used a field at another site.
They added that the outdoor area costs £10,000 a year to maintain and that they had a “limited budget.”
A spokesperson for Brent River College said: “We at Brent River College did everything we could to support this event taking place including meetings, phone calls and emails that outlined exactly what was required, with deadlines.
“The event was never confirmed as deposits and event permits were not received. Despite many requests and extended deadlines they were not sent to us.
“The Event Committee then opted for a later date to allow them to complete their organisation over the summer break and we offered a meeting in September to provide support.
“In September the Committee contacted us to cancel. They thanked us for all we had done and for being so accommodating. They also said that they looked forward to continuing to work with us.”
When asked directly by The Source why Brent River College was now asking for the organisers to pay for the grass to be cut despite not previously doing so the last time they used the venue, the school did not directly address the question.
When asked directly by The Source to address the reason the organisers had cancelled the event which they say was due to the cost of cutting the grass, the school also declined to comment.
A spokesperson for Brent Council told The Source that schools are responsible for maintenance of the school estate. The council added that schools receive funding to “do so and use as they see fit.”
The Source asked Labour MP for Brent West Barry Gardiner if it was appropriate for schools to get community groups to pay for their maintenance costs but he declined to comment.