The newly appointed director of the Wireless Festival has accused campaigners attempting to stop it taking place of “jumping on a bandwagon”.

Melvin Benn, chief executive of Festival Republic which organises the annual event in Finsbury Park, has taken over the running of the music festival, after anti-social behaviour marred last year’s event.

The Friends of Finsbury Park group have sent a letter to Haringey Council asking for the event to be cancelled due to the disruption and are preparing to take the decision to allow the festival back to judicial review.

After security breaches at last year’s event, which included around 200 people storming through the fences without paying, and complaints of people urinating in private gardens and inhaling nitrous oxide, Mr Benn has pledged a 25 per cent greater spend on security staff and has brought in retired police superintendents to help manage the security.

Speaking at The Hospital Club in central London on Thursday evening, Mr Benn said: “The Friends of Finsbury Park are barking up the wrong tree, they will not succeed, it is nimbyism I am afraid.

“They have jumped on a bandwagon to try and prevent Haringey Council doing what the government insists every local authority does, which is to sweat the assets that they have so the burden on the taxpayer does not have to be increased.

“The Wireless Festival is a great example of an event that brings in significant income to the local community, and will continue to do so.

“They claim to be the representative group, but not one of them is elected, the representative of the areas are the council, the elected representatives of the local community, and they have signed off on our use of the park, so I am very happy that we have acted with the interests of the local residents in mind."

Mr Benn, who served as a senior organiser of Glastonbury between 2001 and 2012, put on London Fleadh in Finsbury Park in 1990, the first major music festival in the park, and claims to have put on 50 major concerts at the festival since.

He said: “I called into the festival for a couple of hours last year, and it is fair to say I would have organised it slightly differently myself.

“What we saw was a lack of command and control over the security structure, and certainly a lack of security on the perimeter.

“The people who were tasked with controlling the issues on the outside of the fence were inadequately prepared and briefed, and you could almost see that in their body language, looking around for direction.

“Trust me, I am a genuine friend of Finsbury Park, I have probably put more money into Finsbury Park than any other individual existing on this planet in that I have been renting it for concerts since the 90s.

“Wireless Festival is the perfect event for the park, and the park is the perfect place to hold the festival in."

The Friends of Finsbury Park group have sent a “pre-action letter” to the council and Wireless, which sets out the grounds a legal challenge of the decision to allow the festival.

Tom Palin, chairman of Friends of Finsbury Park, said the council failed to carry out the consultation lawfully as people were denied access to the application and were not provided with sufficient information or time to respond.

They also argue the council’s decision to close part of the Park for the purposes of the festival is unlawful as it closes too much of the park for too long.

He said: “After meeting with our legal team last week, we are confident we have a very good case which raises several issues that highlight Haringey Council’s seemingly endless failures to carry out lawful consultation, whilst also ignoring legislation put in place to protect the Park.

“Haringey Council must realise that they can't abuse a public park in this way. Unimaginably huge, commercial events with prison-like perimeter fences should not be allowed in any park.

“Park budgets are being slashed, and if we are to secure the future of our green spaces, we must look at alternative ways to bring in income that are more suitable and appropriate to the Park.”

Haringey Council spokesperson Joe Derrett said income from Wireless Festival last year paid for around £400,000 worth of improvements to Finsbury Park.

He said: "The variety of events ensures that Finsbury Park continues to be a popular destination and attracts new visitors to the area.

"We are continuing to work with all of our partners to ensure that events go ahead safely and as smoothly as possible and residents see improvements in the way they are delivered.”

The festival is due to take place between July 8 and 10.