11 hours ago
Notting Hill Carnival ‘at risk without funding for public safety'
The future of Notting Hill Carnival could be at risk without 'urgent funding' from the government, its organisers have warned.
In a letter to the culture secretary, the organisers of the annual summer festival, held in west London, say it requires extra money or going ahead 'risks compromising public safety'.
At least one million people normally attend the weekend festival, which has been marred by several acts of violence in recent years.
Ian Comfort, chairman of the Carnival Village Trust, which runs the festival, has written to Lisa Nandy, the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, about its future. 'Limited resourcing has restricted the police service's ability to respond to growing operational pressures,' Comfort said in the letter, reported by the BBC.
He said it was 'now essential to allow the police to focus on their primary role of crime prevention and public protection' and that crowd management should be handled by more stewards.
Comfort added that if the festival was unable to secure 'immediate' additional funding, it 'risks compromising public safety and jeopardising the future of the carnival'.
His intervention followed comments last September from Matt Twist, the Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner with responsibility for frontline policing, who said there were some near misses because of crowd density at last August's carnival. 'We [had] to step in a number of times in order to reduce the crowd density in order to save life,' Twist said.
Scotland Yard have said that 'unacceptable violence' marred last year's carnival. Cher Maximen, 32,was fatally stabbed in front of her daughter on 'family day' and Mussie Imnetu, 41, a Dubai-based chef, was beaten to death during an altercation. Two men have been separately convicted of the unrelated offences. Eight non-fatal stabbings were also reported.
The London Assembly's police and crime committee produced a report in April warning that a Hillsborough-scale tragedy could happen.
Susan Hall, the committee chairwoman, said: 'We have seen and heard a number of incredibly worrying incidents [relating to] crowd density at the event. The Met told us there is a real possibility of a mass-casualty event and we cannot stand by and wait for a tragic incident to happen. Action must be taken.'
A review of crowd safety is under way. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has been contacted for comment.
