Wandsworth Council is taking legal action against neighbouring Lambeth following its renewed backing of a festival next summer.

South West Four (SW4) is a two day electronic music festival that has been held on Clapham Common unofficially since 2001 and officially since 2004.

Last year the sound level was raised prompting an increase in complaints from local residents.

Lambeth Council have granted the festival permission to hold the event again on the Common, for the 2016 noise levels to be retained and to extend the event to three days.

Wandsworth’s application to magistrates will seek to resort noise levels back to what they were in 2015 and keep the festival to two days rather than three.

Wandsworth’s environment spokesman Councillor Jonathan Cook said: "I’m afraid that Lambeth have left us no alternative but to seek a resolution of this issue in the courts.

"We raised some reasonable points at their committee meeting which could have been easily agreed to that would have allowed the festival to go ahead without causing the major headache that residents in both boroughs experienced last year."

He said he wanted to make it "crystal clear" that the council was not objecting to the event but just how it was "being managed".

He added: "A six-fold increase in complaints is a clear indication that the balance here is wrong and that these new arrangements are causing unreasonable disturbance to people living nearby.

"Our sole aim is to redress that balance in the interests of both festival goers and local residents."

The noise levels of previous years have been criticised by some music fans. 

Wandsworth Resident Jay Addlington, 27, said: "SW4 is notorious for its poor sound quality.

"Reducing the sound levels diminish the whole experience and ruin the day for the festival-goers and the DJs.

"When we were there a few years ago, we were standing at the front of one of the stages and people’s conversations were louder than the music. 

"I can understand locals being frustrated but music festivals contribute so much to our music culture and bring communities together, surely a deal can be reached that doesn’t compromise the experience for music fans."

Although half of Clapham Common is in Wandsworth, Lambeth Council manages all of it.

SW4 started as an intimate gathering group of local residents that got together for a party in 2001.

It was given official recognition in 2004 and now attracts 30,000 festival goers.