Millions of Londoners are expected to attend Notting Hill Carnival this bank holiday weekend, despite safety and funding concerns. Organisers commissioned a crowd-control review, supported by the Metropolitan Police, which found more funding would be needed to run the event safely in 2025 and identified organisational shortfalls, inadequate risk assessments and no full site plan. The Government declined to provide additional financial support for this year. Emergency funding was provided by Kensington and Chelsea Council, Westminster City Council and the Greater London Authority, enabling some safety recommendations to be implemented. Local leaders warn the funding is one-off and crowd safety remains a serious concern.
Although the Carnival has been a landmark cultural event in London since 1959, the future of the event came under threat this year after its organisers commissioned a review into crowd control, supported by the Metropolitan police, which revealed more funding would be required to hold the event safely in 2025. The review also revealed the event had additional organisational shortfalls, a lack of suitable and sufficient risk assessments and no full and clear site plan.
The Met fully supported the event organisers' decision to commission an independent review into crowd safety after the number of situations in recent years where crowd density reached dangerous levels. It was welcome news that some additional funding was secured to allow the organisers to implement a number of the review's recommendations, but they have only had a limited time to do so meaning it's inevitable not all the risks will have been mitigated.
Collection
[
|
...
]