Carnival faces the axe unless safety is improved

Council chiefs have threatened to withdraw their support for the annual street party unless organisers dramatically improve their preparations.

They claim this year's event was let down by "profound organisational failure" and it is their duty to avoid the 2009 carnival being marred by similar chaos.

Among the key failings identified by Kensington and Chelsea council, which hosts the parade, was the failure to recruit stewards until just three weeks before the event leaving little time for training.

This year's carnival, attended by about one million people, descended into a riot on its final night with a large mob pelting police with bottles and bricks, leaving more than 40 officers injured.

Councillor Merrick Cockell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea, warned that without "urgent and fundamental change" from the organisers, the Notting Hill Carnival Ltd, the council would no longer back the second largest street festival in the world.

He has issued NHCL with an eight-point professional action plan which must be implemented if next year's event is to be saved. Mr Cockell told The Standard he was prepared to settle for it meeting the "basic standards" of public safety as he was keen for it to go ahead. But he added: "Unfortunately, carnival 2008 failed to reach even that basic standard. Virtually all the ingredients of proper event management were absent and that puts the public agencies in a difficult position.

"We cannot allow hundreds of thousands of people to come along to an event when we know it hasn't been properly organised."

The council's overview and scrutiny committee report into this year's carnival warned: "Without significant and rapid improvements in the organisers' capacity for event management, carnival risks being an embarrassment in 2012, instead of being one of the principal assets of London's cultural Olympics."

The Met shares Kensington and Chelsea's concerns over the event, which costs £6.5million a year to police. The carnival organisers have met council officials and Scotland Yard officers in the last two weeks and have accepted most of the council's recommendations, including the need for an overhaul of the carnival's leadership and improving its ability to manage large crowds.

But they remain at odds over how and at what time the carnival should be brought to a close and whether noise limits should be imposed. And they insist the late appointment of stewards this year was only because GLA funding came through a month before the event.

Chris Boothman, NHCL's company secretary, said: "Carnival has now become a complicated event which is attended by many thousands of people and the organisation hasn't developed in line with its size. I believe the committee will pull together and make the changes that need to be made."

Mr Boothman warned that if the council cancelled next year's Carnival it would hit hundreds of small businesses in the area. He also suggested the musicians and performers could well take to the streets anyway.

In the final hours of the 2007 carnival two teenagers were shot and another man stabbed.

The council's demands for the 2009 Notting Hill Carnival to go ahead:

1. It must be run by a competent, experienced organisation, with the proven authority to direct participants.

2. This organisation must be fundable, with proven ability to manage grants and other funds to a standard that meets normal audit expectations.

3. It must prepare a credible and comprehensive event plan, and publish it early enough to enable the public agencies time to prepare and to offer advice if changes are needed.

4. The event plan must show convincingly that carnival will be closed by the time night falls.

5. The organisers must deploy a significant number of competent, trained stewards to manage the route.

6. It must fully commit itself to the joint safety planning process, working with councils and the police to reduce risks to public safety, employee health and safety, and public order.

7. It must engage with local residents by attending local meetings and helping parties concerned reach compromises.

8. It must make sure carnival is fully risk assessed and that all bands and sound systems have adequate insurance.