London’s Notting Hill Carnival should become a ticketed event in order to avoid a deadly crowd crush on the scale of the Hillsborough disaster, politicians in the capital have claimed.
A report by the City Hall Conservatives, the largest opposition party in the London Assembly, detailed mounting safety concerns at the carnival in West London, with the authors of the report suggesting the annual event should now be ticketed.
Around 2 million people go to the Notting Hill Carnival, and it is policed by about 7,000 police officers.
But over recent years it has become increasingly expensive to maintain safety, and the report suggests it is only by "chance" that a catastrophe on the scale of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, in which 97 people were killed in a crowd crush, has been avoided to date.
According to the report, Sadiq Khan has increased City Hall’s share of funding for Notting Hill Carnival by over 1,000% since he became mayor of London in 2016.
The cost of policing the event in 2023 was £11.7m, but the report estimates the cost to the taxpayer will hit £16.5 million this year and total £80 million over the next five years. Meanwhile, total numbers of arrests have risen by 160% over the last 25 years. However the event has doubled in size during this period.
The report concludes that the current event organisers "do not have the governance structure or the resources required" to organise an event on this scale, and it says "the occurrence of a major public safety disaster, such as a Hillsborough-style crush, has only been avoided by chance – not by effective organisation".
Susan Hall, the leader of the City Hall Conservative group and author of the report said: "Notting Hill Carnival is a hugely important event and deserves to succeed – my report is designed to raise awareness of the serious safety issues the event faces in its current form, and put forward recommendations to give the event the security and stability it needs.
"As my report shows, crime has increased substantially at the event since 2000, alongside a huge increase in the cost to the taxpayer. We must find another way – no other event would be allowed to continue like this.
“At a time when Londoners are facing cuts to essential and frontline policing services because of Sadiq Khan and this Labour government, the Met simply cannot afford to spend over £80 million policing Carnival over the next 5 years. A new permanent funding solution for Carnival would give the event the certainty it needs to run as successfully as possible.”
A spokesperson for Notting Hill Carnival Ltd told The Independent: “Notting Hill Carnival was founded and remains a community-led event which is its heart beat and [it] should remain that way. But it is important to understand that through NHCL and its organisational partners in the councils, GLA and the emergency services, we work collaboratively and pull on the expertise from each agency for the betterment of the event.
“Many of the points raised in this report have been addressed and actioned by NHCL and its strategic partners. An independent review commissioned by NHCL earlier this year has led to numerous changes this year and beyond.”
They added: “We would formally like to invite Susan Hall to visit the Event Liaison Team headquarters during this year’s carnival to witness the operation in action and meet the people who run it for her to better understand the operation.”
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London told The Independent: “The Notting Hill Carnival was born out of the Caribbean community in North Kensington and Notting Hill. It ultimately belongs to the community who decide where it is held and organise the event.
“The carnival is not organised by the Mayor, but he continues to work with partners to help ensure everyone can enjoy carnival safely and honour its cultural importance.
“Following an independent review of carnival, the Mayor stepped forward with partners to provide additional funding this year, however he believes that national funding will be needed to ensure the long-term safety and success of what is a nationally-significant event over the years ahead.”
