The future of London’s Notting Hill Carnival is “in jeopardy” without “urgent funding”, according to a leaked letter from organisers of the annual event.
The letter was sent to Lisa Nandy, who is Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and leaked by the BBC. In it, Carnival Village Trust chair Ian Comfort said that financial support was “essential to safeguarding the future and public safety of this iconic event”.
This follows an independent safety review of the London event which identified “critical public safety concerns” that will require additional funding to address, the letter said. The full findings of the review in question have not been shared publicly.
“Limited resourcing has restricted the police service’s ability to respond to growing operational pressures,” the letter added, with Comfort stating that additional funding for stewarding and crowd management is “now essential to allow the police to focus on their primary role of crime prevention and public protection”.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan backed the carnival organisers’ calls for additional funding. Speaking at mayor’s question time, he said the event had become a “victim of its own success” and added that the risk of a crowd crush at Carnival “made [him] frightened”.
Speaking today (June 19), Khan said: “”[At] City Hall, we’ve been supporting the carnival in my last nine years as mayor in terms of funding for safety and security. We fund the carnival safety and security, to the tune of about £1,000,000.”
The mayor said the current level of funding given to carnival organisers by City Hall, Kensington and Chelsea Council, and Westminster Council was the “maximum we can financially, and so we would need the government to step in”.
The government has said it would respond to the request for additional funding soon.
Founded in 1966, Notting Hill Carnival is Europe’s largest street party and the second largest such event in the world. It attracts around two million attendees each year, and takes place annually across the August Bank Holiday weekend. This year’s event is scheduled for August 25 and 26.
