The future of London’s Notting Hill Carnival could be in doubt unless the UK government is willing to provide funding to ramp up public safety measures at the annual event. Carnival chair Ian Comfort has written to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy seeking that support, stating central government funding is “essential for safeguarding the future and public safety of this iconic event”.
Nandy’s department has confirmed it will “respond to the letter in due course”. However, central government providing funding to a London event would be controversial, with some of Nandy’s political colleagues likely to say that any new cash should come from local government in the capital instead.
But London Mayor Sadiq Khan has already insisted that London’s local authorities have “given the maximum we can”. That is likely to prompt others in Westminster to say that, with government culture funding already being cut back, maybe it’s time to revamp - or even cancel - London’s big carnival.
The call for more funding for Notting Hill Carnival follows the commissioning of an independent safety review by its organisers, which is yet to publish its findings, but will presumably propose that a number of new crowd management and event security measures be introduced.
According to the BBC, Comfort's letter to Nandy also cites another report produced by the London Assembly earlier this year that said limited resourcing makes it increasingly difficult for the Metropolitan Police to ensure safety and security at large-scale events.
Which means it’s “essential” to find funding for alternative crowd management operations at the Carnival so that the police can instead “focus on their primary role of crime prevention and public protection”.
Taking over the streets of the Notting Hill area of London during the August bank holiday weekend, the Carnival is one of the biggest street festivals in the world. With the core event open to everyone and free to attend, managing the crowds over the weekend has become a major task.
Last year the Met Police’s Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist raised concerns that crowd management issues at the Carnival are now a disaster waiting to happen.
Speaking to the London Assembly’s Police And Crime Committee last year, he noted that - although it tends to be incidents of crime, and especially knife crime, that occur during the Carnival that get media coverage - it’s actually the sheer quantity of people attending the event that is the real concern.
“While we acknowledge that crime often gets the headlines”, Twist told the committee, “the thing that worries me most is the crowd density and the potential for a mass casualty event”.
The Carnival has received some government funding via the Arts Council in the past, but having central government directly finance new crowd management and event security operations will cause some controversy politically speaking.
Some will question why taxpayers generally should be subsidising what many see as primarily a London event. Plus some politicians and pundits, especially on the populist right, are already Carnival critics.
The Greater London Authority, and two London councils - Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster - do provide existing funding to the Carnival. Some in central government and in Parliament will likely say that - if more money is now needed - that’s where it should come from. But the London authorities are adamant they can’t afford to hand over any more cash.
According to the Evening Standard, London mayor Sadiq Khan said yesterday, “I support the Carnival in asking the government for additional funding. My team is speaking to the government as I speak. I have got to be quite frank, though: City Hall and the two [London borough] councils have given the maximum we can financially. We would need the government to step in”.
While some politicians and pundits may argue that the funding hole is a good reason to cancel the Carnival, others will likely suggest a major revamp could overcome the costly crowd management issues.
Former police officer and now a Labour MP in Lancashire, Jonathan Hinder, has already proposed that the Carnival should be moved to another location in London where it could be ticketed and more easily managed, reducing both crime and the crowd safety concerns. This proposal came in a seven word tweet that said, simply, “Hyde Park. Ticket only. No stabbings. Done”.
However, speaking to LBC, London-based Labour MP Miatta Fahnbulleh wasn’t keen on that proposal saying, “It would be a shame if it was ticketed and you had to pay for it”, because the “beauty” of the Carnival “is it’s accessible to everyone”.