Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

This review has, in a variety of ways, sought to explore new ideas and establish new areas of
understanding about the Notting Hill Carnival. At the same time, it has re-visited a number of critical
issues, all of which appear to have remained unresolved for many years. The work of the Carnival
Review Group has been both innovative and extensive. It has included the most wide-ranging
consultation ever conducted with the various Carnival stakeholders and interest groups. In 2001, the
Greater London Authority commissioned planning and crowd safety specialists, the Intelligent Space
Partnership to implement its Carnival Public Safety Project - the first comprehensive assessment of
crowd safety and route design at the Notting Hill Carnival. The project involved the use of both state
of the art computer modelling and best practice risk assessment guidance. As a result of this
groundbreaking work, both Intelligent Space and the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at
University College London received the 2002 Award for Innovation from the Association for
Geographic Information. On behalf of the Carnival Review Group, I would like to congratulate Dr. Jake
Desyllas, Dr. Elspeth Duxbury (the Intelligent Space Partnership), Zachary Au and Professor Mike
Batty, the director of CASA for their well-deserved recognition and award. I would also like to
acknowledge the decision-making support provided by Professor Jonathan Rosenhead and Tom
Horlick-Jones from the Department of Operational Research at the London School of Economics and
Political Science (LSE) 4 . In 1997 and 1998, Professor Rosenhead and Tom Horlick-Jones carried out
the first detailed analysis of the organisational and inter-organisational risk management processes
associated with the Notting Hill Carnival 5 . The importance of their work, particularly within the context
of the Carnival Review Group’s interim recommendations provided the basis upon which the Carnival
Public Safety Project was founded.
As an integral part of the Mayor’s strategic review, the London Development Agency commissioned a
study to determine the economic contribution and value of the Notting Hill Carnival to the local and
regional economy. A consortium 6 led by the consultants Mann Weaver Drew and De Montfort
University were appointed in early June 2002 to carry out this seminal piece of research and this work
has been extremely important in informing the deliberations of the Carnival Review Group, as well as
establishing a more detailed understanding of the community development achievements and potential
of the Carnival.
One of the stated objectives of the Mayor’s review was the consideration of evidence from organisers
of similar events both in the UK and in other countries. The Glastonbury Festival was identified as one
such comparable UK event in terms of the public safety challenges that it faces and I would like to
thank Chief Superintendent John Buckley of Avon and Somerset Constabulary and Avon and Somerset
Council for taking the time to share their views and experiences with members of the Carnival Review
Group.
The issue of public safety has rightly remained a significant element in the Review Group’s final report,
but the Carnival’s history, true economic, social and cultural contribution, as well as the importance of
community leadership are also considered in great detail. The Notting Hill Carnival has become a
national institution. It has become a defining London feature, which cuts across race, gender, age,
ability, sexual orientation and class. At Carnival, it is not uncommon to find three, possibly four
generations of one family performing in the same masquerade band or steel-pan orchestra, such is the
strength of tradition that the Carnival engenders. I know of no other major London event that has
been able to consistently produce this level of activity, on this scale with relatively few resources, for so
many years and despite so many obstacles.
4
This involvement was made possible by a research award from the LSE BP/CARR Complex Risk Programme.
5
“Decision support for organisational risk management by problem structuring”, Horlick-Jones, Rosenhead, Georgiou, Ravitz and
Lofstedt, Health, Risk & Society, Vol. 3, No.2, 2001.
6
Other members of the consortium included the CSR Partnership and the Creative Industries Development Agency (CIDA)
8