Wandsworth is waiving its £64 street party fee for the weekend of 19 and 20 September. Applications close 4 September, with 18 free green events booked too.

Wandsworth Council will let residents close their street for a party on Saturday 19 or Sunday 20 September without paying its usual £64 fee. Applications have to be in by Friday 4 September, which is nine days from now.

The waiver is tied to national Car Free Day, which falls on Tuesday 22 September. The council says it is dropping the charge “to encourage residents to come together”. Anyone eligible for its Access for All scheme normally pays £32, and that is waived too. (Wandsworth Council, street parties)

Free is not quite free

The £64 goes, but the kit does not come with it. The council’s own page prices two “Road Closed” signs plus two barriers at about £30. They have to be collected from and returned to Frogmore Stores, Frogmore Complex, Dormay Street, SW18 1EY. It opens 9.30am to 3.30pm on weekdays.

The barriers also have to be staffed for the whole closure by someone able to move them quickly for an emergency vehicle.

The council’s own page contradicts itself on the deadline

The street parties page says applicants “should complete the application form at least six weeks before the date of your planned party”.

It also says applications for a Car Free Day party on 19 or 20 September can be submitted “any time from 11 July until 4 September”. Applying on the last permitted day would leave 15 days, not six weeks. Anyone relying on the later date should expect the council to be working to a tight turnaround, and applying now rather than on 4 September is the safer course.

What the rules actually say

The scheme is for small residential parties run by the people who live on the street, not public events. The conditions set out on the council’s page:

  • The party cannot be held on a bus route.
  • No charging residents to attend, and no bouncy castles or structures on the highway.
  • A 4 metre gap must be kept clear for emergency vehicles at all times, with unrestricted pedestrian access.
  • Barriers at each end must be staffed throughout, and a finish time of 8pm is considered reasonable.
  • No formal risk assessment and, in most cases, no insurance is needed.
  • Live or recorded music needs no licence provided the party is private, not advertised in advance and not making money.
  • Alcohol only needs a licence if it is being sold. Sharing drinks does not count.
  • Barbecues must be on private forecourts and gardens, never on the road, and bonfires are banned outright.
  • A tombola is fine if tickets are sold on the day and prizes total under £500. Selling tickets in advance needs a lottery registration.
  • Organisers must clear up afterwards and must tell the emergency services separately.

Applications go through the council’s online street party form.

The rest of Sustainable September

The waiver sits inside a month-long programme the council calls Sustainable September. It has published 18 dated community events, most of them free, and most of them run by local groups rather than the council itself.

Calendar of September 2026 showing Wandsworth Sustainable September events, with the street party deadline on 4 September, car-free street parties on 19 and 20 September and Car Free Day on 22 September
Every dated event on the council's published Sustainable September programme. Community-run events should be confirmed with the organiser.

The programme as published:

  • 5 September: Beautify Balham litter pick; gardening at Coronation Gardens; Work & Play Scrapstore open
  • 6 September: local nature network event at Woodfield Pavilion
  • 8 and 9 September: tours of Smugglers Way Recycling Centre
  • 9 September: People’s Emergency Briefing screening at St Mary’s and St John the Divine, Balham
  • 11 September: River Wandle litter pick in King George’s Park with the South East Rivers Trust
  • 12 September: Balham Green Fair at St Mary’s; Transition Town Tooting mend and repair cafe; Putney repair cafe
  • 13 September: Paradise Cooperative harvest festival; bat walk with Friends of Tooting Common, which the council marks as date to be confirmed
  • 14 to 18 September: Recycling Week, including free Smugglers Way webinars
  • 19 September: gardening at Coronation Gardens; Work & Play Scrapstore open; Saturday Spectacular at St Barnabas, Clapham Common
  • 19 and 20 September: Southfields Yard Sale Trail
  • 24 September: Back Up’s Front Row Fashion Show
  • 26 September: Southfields Harvest; Restarters Southfields mend, fix and repair cafe

(Wandsworth Council, Sustainable September)

Three details the council’s list leaves out

The recycling webinars have fixed times and limited places. Western Riverside Waste Authority is running five 45-minute sessions on Microsoft Teams: Monday 14 September at 19:00, Tuesday 15 September at 12:30, Wednesday 16 September at 19:00, Thursday 17 September at 12:30 and Friday 18 September at 12:30. Each covers what can and cannot go in a home recycling bin across Wandsworth, Lambeth, Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea, with a live question session. Places have to be booked in advance. (WRWA)

The Southfields repair cafe takes one item per person. It runs from 12:00 to 15:00 on Saturday 26 September at 146 Lavenham Road, SW18 5EP, with the entrance off Merton Road, and last registration at 2.30pm. It takes small electricals, computers and laptops, small household items and sewing repairs, with bicycles and jewellery listed as subject to volunteer availability. (The Restart Project)

One listed event is not free. The council’s announcement describes Sustainable September as “a packed schedule of free activities for all”. The Front Row Fashion Show on 24 September is a ticketed fundraiser. It is held by the spinal cord injury charity Back Up, at Battersea Arts Centre on Lavender Hill. General admission starts at £50 and VIP tickets at £100. Those prices come from the description on the council’s own Welcome to Wandsworth listing. Confusingly, the pricing field on that same page reads “£15 or more”, so check before booking. (Welcome to Wandsworth)

What it means for you

If you want a car-free street party, the practical steps are short:

  1. Check your street is not a bus route.
  2. Submit the online form now rather than on 4 September, given the council’s own six-week guidance.
  3. Budget around £30 for signs and barriers, and arrange collection from Frogmore Stores during weekday office hours.
  4. Tell the emergency services separately, through the council’s linked form.
  5. Line up people to staff the barriers for the whole closure.

If a party is not for you, the free events run right through the month, and several of them are on the doorstep of streets currently dug up by the Thames Water mains programme in Battersea. The full month’s listings for the borough are on our things to do in Wandsworth page.

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