Notting Hill Carnival Strategic Review - Intelligent Space

Context
2.14 The GLA provided project development funding in the sum of £160,000, £115,000 and
£120,000 respectively to enable the Carnival organisers to recruit, train and deploy stewards at
the 2001 56 , 2002 and 2003 Carnivals. For the 2001 event, a competitive tendering process
was undertaken and a professional stewarding company was selected to manage the
stewarding and route management operations. In 2002 and 2003, the operation was again
brought in-house and managed by the event organiser.
2.15 The Notting Hill Carnival is unique in stewarding and crowd management terms due to its
complex nature and combined with the specific requirement to manage both crowds and
vehicles. The Carnival organisers have always recognised the need to control both the crowd
and the vehicles from a safety point of view and from a Carnival timing point of view to ensure
the effective closedown of the event. This resulted in the development of a stewarding
operation that is unique to Carnival. The timing of the Carnival procession is inextricably
linked to safety in that as the hours of darkness draw in, the incidence of criminal activity and
concomitant likelihood of public order incidents increases, thereby necessitating the mounting
of a major policing operation on an annual basis. The method of determining steward
numbers has never been arrived at via any scientific process of risk assessment. Rather,
number was determined purely on the basis of the funds available for the exercise and
experience.
2.16 In assessing the effectiveness of the Carnival stewarding operation over the last three years, it
is essential to bear in mind that inclement weather on the Sundays in 2001 and 2002 caused
crowd numbers to drop well below the level of previous years. This therefore reduced the
pressure on the stewarding operation over the two days. In 2003, crowd numbers were also
down and this was primarily due to the suspension of major rail network services as a result of
major maintenance work. Increased funding meant that the Carnival stewarding operation
expanded three-fold. Management difficulties and capacity issues – first with NHCT and then
with LNHCL, meant that in each year of the GLA’s funding, extremely tight time-scales
precluded quality planning. Despite this pressure the consensus was that the stewarding
function had improved greatly. The general feedback has been complimentary and the
increase in steward numbers has been recognised as a positive step forward, particularly by
the MPS.
Lessons
2.17 Post-Carnival debriefs of the stewarding operation laid great emphasis on the need for the
operational plan to focus as much on the preparatory work as upon the execution of the
operation. The process of recruiting, training and briefing all staff and management to the
highest standards was deemed essential to the Notting Hill Carnival because it was a one-off
annual event with unique requirements and a unique culture. There was a clear recognition
that the process of recruiting the correct people, registering and issuing of ID passes,
distributing uniforms and the delivery of appropriate quality training required considerable
planning skills and experience.
2.18 The training of stewards was limited to between two and three hours. Whilst the content and
delivery was good under the circumstances and limited time constraints, the sessions were, at
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The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea also agreed to provide funding for an additional 100 stewards (valued at £30,000) for
Carnival 2001.
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