Cancel the Notting Hill Carnival!

[Witchofwisteria]

AIBU. This year police have confiscated 49 knives and 70 offensive weapons total, including ACID and stun guns plus one stabbing. Over 400 people were arrested, up from 313 last year and I am starting to wonder when enough will be enough.

The streets are left in a state after the event and the cost to taxpayer is astronomical. I feel like the Notting hill carnival has lost its way and turned into a breeding ground for opportunistic thugs. The thought that someone was wondering round with ACID, willing to throw it into a crowd and scar however many tens of people it sprayed on is beyond sick. We are quite happy to say terrorists are a major threat to Londoners but these groups are a MUCH worse threat to our daily lives and it's just too risky to have this event when we know it's going to attract these nasty individuals and gangs.

I'm totally not a fuddy duddy and appreciate that things like rubbish being left and dirty streets are always going to happen with big public festivals (like Brighton Pride) but Notting hill is just seeming to get more sinister each year.

Time to cancel the festival for 1 year, sit down and re think how this could be made into a ticketed festival in 2020. The price of the ticket will help pay for the extra policing and security, fencing and security around the cordoned off area and contribute towards charities the festival supports. Think Hyde park concerts in the park type event, we need to keep people safe.

Ime it’s not necessarily offering money but organised trips out of London. The housing associations in the area used to put on a few. But it was totally choice usually for older residents who obviously had become quite intolerant in their later years

by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea or whatever it is called.

www.ft.com/content/4a212894-a6d8-11e8-8ecf-a7ae1beff35b

(Intolerant of carnival not intolerant in general lol)

Oh ok, thanks glint.

In fairness reading about it, it was run this year by an organised events company, so it may have been much better organised this year.

From what I have experience (as a Westminster resident in the middle of the carnival route- not K&C) the residents are almost split down on the middle on carnival, with slightly more people in favour of keeping it.
We decided to move on carnival route, knowing full well what that meant. Maybe people go on holiday over this weekend, but to be fair, most bank holidays people are away in the area. Many residents just get on with it. It would be interesting to see how many residents are actually on this thread?
@sara, I have a dog and just wander down to hyde park to walk it. People are generally very loving towards him and he loves the chicken on the floor.
I dont think it should move. I think its fine just where it is, I think this year was better with toilets too.

I feel a bit sorry for the organisers and the caribbean community tbh, The NHC is now very much a white ( mainly middle class ) festival, which must ( as much as it’s great to have a mix of people ) take something away from the overall ‘feel’ of what the festival is actually about & celebrating.

I cant even see what's the appeal

This. None of my business really as I don't live in London and would never go, but is policing it a good use of London taxpayers' money?

It sounds to me like it needs to be ticketed and cleaned up.

And five deaths is five too many.

glint In fairness if you are frail and elderly, being in crowds is very scary. One slight push and you can fall over and break your hip. So most would if not on day trips, I suspect stayed in their homes the whole time. I know my mum will no longer go anywhere crowded because of her fears that it could kill her.

@abacucat older residents can apply to go on "holiday". Generally the policy is to shift the old people out...

Should have been stopped years ago. Wrong location and waste of police hours.

Why shift the older people out?

The NHC is now very much a white ( mainly middle class ) festival, which must ( as much as it’s great to have a mix of people ) take something away from the overall ‘feel’ of what the festival is actually about & celebrating.

I just don't agree with this at all. I live in the area and attendees are predominantly black.

@abacucat, they give older residents the opportunity of getting out of the area. You can sign up for a holiday which means that you dont have to deal with feeling isolated by the carnival. I think logistically with a wheel chair or a walker carnival isn't easy, but I could be wrong.

@CarolDanvers I agree with you about the mix. There are many council blocks on carnival route too, not just expensive houses.

FourFried It is an offensive, discriminatory statement. Everyone has a right to live peacefully, comfortbaly, safely and securely in their home. It makes no different what colour, class, religion, race, sex they are. It is not ok to tell rich people to move out of an area just as it wouldn't be ok to tell catholics, jews, moslems, poor people or gay people that they should move if they don't like what another group is doing.

I haven't made any offensive / discriminatory statements...
I was just saying its a bit ironic moving into an 'up and coming area' with thusly inflated house prices, which has become popular/fashionable because of Carnival, and then try and get rid of Carnival.
I am sure plenty of people agree with me.

I never said you had, you defended the statement.

As I have said I live in the area and used to work for the NHS co-ordinating home visits for the elderly and certainly round the Ladbroke Grove area it's mainly flats in converted houses mostly ordinary couples, families etc not Ritchie Rich's. There's some massive houses as you head up to Holland Park and Kensington and on the back streets but on the whole it's an even split. It's simply not true that loads of NIMBYS have moved in and are clamouring for change.

Sandy we claim WTC, but I only socialise with the Tolkien Society, who are generally middle class and have a nice private pension. A section of my family, the people I saw around me in Notting Hill Gate, the people who live near me now, are poor.

And I would think most people who buy houses in Notting Hill don't do so for any reason to do with the carnival. It has been an enclave of the uppermiddle classes since the 1980s. They do what many of us do, aspire to live somewhere with like-minded people who live as we wish to live- however that is.

I think you overestimate the carnival. To most people in the country outside of London, it means very little - something reported on tv once a year. Notting Hill is seen as just a smart area of London or they associate it with other things - Portobello Road or the film or somewhere celebrities choose to live or somewhere with interesting social history and that is why they are interested.

Really interesting article @abacucat thanks

they buy houses there because it is fashionable - and yes I know that is a process that has taken place over many years.
What made it 'trendy' originally was largely Carnival.
I don't know why this is upsetting you so much Lulu.

Community is about ties to a geographical area, as well as cultural heritage, so the NHC is about celebrating geographical ties to the Notting Hill area. Not just landmarks, but streets, houses, blocks of flats, shops and businesses, have special significance, because when the Windrush generation settled in the Nottinghill area, it was an era when they were refused housing, and perhaps refused service in shops and businesses. There used to be notices in the windows of some housing: "No Irish. No Blacks. No Dogs." So it is very important that the Nottinghill Carnival continues in those streets where people's great grandparents weren't rejected, and established roots. With an attendance so large there's going to be issues to do with litter and crime - just like daily life, but focused on a smaller area and time window. It's just a few days a year, and anyone moving to the area should be aware of the fact that a world famous carnival is held on their doorsteps for this few days.