Concerns about Notting Hill Carnival have been raised by both a police officers’ group and Met Police boss Sir Mark Rowley, with questions over safety and whether organisers can secure funding for extra stewards in time.
Deputy general secretary of the Metropolitan Police Federation Simon Hill said none of the frontline officers he speaks to look forward to working at the event, amid concerns there could be a deadly crush due to the size of the crowds that the carnival attracts.
Carnival chairman Ian Comfort has requested more funding from the Government to steward the event and address safety concerns, amid ongoing warnings from police that there could be a tragedy.
A report by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley for the London Policing Board, that meets on Thursday, says force bosses are “significantly concerned” that funding for extra stewards for the August Bank Holiday event will not be in place in time.
Referring to phase one of a review commissioned by organisers that looked at crowd safety and stewarding, the report says: “We are however significantly concerned that with just a matter of weeks to go until this year’s event that the essential funding has not been secured and, with each week that passes, the ability to successfully implement the Phase One recommendations becomes more challenging as event management companies will be hesitant to take on an event at such short notice without a sufficient lead-in time.”
Around 7,000 Metropolitan Police officers are deployed to each day of the event, and the cost of policing the Carnival in 2023 was £11.7 million according to figures released under Freedom of Information legislation.
Mr Hill said officers are “as worried this year as they were last year and the year before” about working at the event.
“Nobody that I speak to actually looks forward to working Notting Hill Carnival which is a real shame, because it’s a vibrant event, it’s an important event.
“We should enjoy interacting with the public and serving the community in it, but you have a handful of criminals who turn up to the event and just cause carnage.
“We had two murders (last year), 60-odd of my colleagues on average are getting assaulted every carnival, it’s been going on for years and it’s not acceptable.”
He said the size of the area where the event is held should expand or the number of people attending should be reduced.
“Everyone accepts it’s an unsafe event. Why is it still going on?” he added.
“You’ve got people coming onto the radio talking about a lack of confidence in the police because we’re not doing our job, and yet we’re spending millions of pounds over two days for an event, displacing thousands of officers to police an event.
“Could they be used better elsewhere? Could that money be used better elsewhere? I would suggest it could.”
He has asked for details of what training stewards receive and what checks are carried out to make sure they are suitable to work within the crowds, but said he had not received any information.
Sir Mark told LBC during a call-in: “The organisers, who are really good people, need the support to be able to do it properly, to keep everyone safe so they can enjoy that event. I think they’re asking for around a couple of million pounds to be able to do that properly.”
He went on: “From our perspective, we don’t enjoy trying to rescue the safety, because you can’t fix an event where the safety is at risk.
“You can only sort of mitigate it, you can’t fix it. Frankly we want to fix our attention on the small number of people who come along to commit crime.”
Two people were murdered at the carnival last year – Cher Maximen, who was killed in front of her three-year-old daughter, and chef Mussie Imnetu.
Asked about the average 60 officers who are injured he said: “The criminals who turn up to this event are really violent and very difficult, and frankly, fighting crime in a confined area where the crowds are so crushed, is doubly difficult.
“If the organisers were given the resources to run it better, we’d be able to do a better job fighting crime, and our officers would be at less risk.”
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