A triumph - but change is needed

In the weeks after the last fiasco, Ken Livingstone convened a carnival review group and gave it the task of root and branch reform. Its' work has yet to be completed but it was able within a matter of months to identify key weaknesses. It quickly concluded that the Carnival Trust was too poorly funded to attract the expertise necessary to guarantee safety. It said Carnival had grown to a world famous attraction but did not have the infrastructure or the resources to match. For most of the year, the Trust operated with just three staff. It could not be expected to cope.

This was worrying stuff, especially when set against the two murders. So an interim report called for a change in the route, revamped stewarding and more policing. Stewarding was improved and so was the policing. The weekend's operation cost the Met £4 million, making it most expensive policing event in London's history.

Other key recommendations came to nothing. The route was not changed - despite the acknowledgement that the circular route was causing most of the crowd control problems. Late last night, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Trotter, who led the police operation, said he still believed the route must be altered before Carnival can be said to be safe.

For this to occur, some of London's key bodies and individuals will have to work together in a way they failed to do before this year. The Trust and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea will have to bring their relationship out of the deep freeze and start working together in constructive fashion. The Royal Parks Authority will probably have to drop its pompous objections to the Carnival parade ending in Hyde Park as the police and the mayor would prefer. Having sponsored the Carnival Review, Ken Livingstone and the Greater London Authority may have to take on some responsibility to ensure the event receives the proper funding and has sponsorship befitting its status. Certainly the mayor will have to use the authority of his office to end the turf wars so apparent this year.

The Review Group promises to unveil its recommendations for 2002 in the autumn, which will leave 10 months to draw up and agree a new blueprint. There is no further excuse for running the event on a wing and a prayer.

My approach would be to go back to basics. Retain a slimmed-down family event, with the soca and calypso bands and the colourful, ingenious costumes, in Notting Hill. Then place the more boisterous elements which have been grafted onto Carnival over the years - the rap, reggae and R'n'B sound systems and the live acts - in a park elsewhere. Call the whole event Carnival Day. It means aficionados would retain the core elements of Carnival but the residents of Notting Hill and the police would be spared the huge influx every August Bank Holiday. Those most inclined to cause trouble at Carnival would be less attracted by the pared down event in Notting Hill and would be easier to police in Finsbury, Battersea or Brockwell parks.

This is a time for radical thinking, particularly as we see how beneficial a trouble-free carnival can be for morale. It should be a very public celebration of the multi-culturalism envied by others around Britain and the world. It can be a money spinner too; a magnet for tourists and an economic driving force for suppliers and traders. Many shops and pubs which stay open - while others board up their windows - do good business. They should all feel able to stay open and cash in.

Whether that happens depends on the bureaucrats and politicians but it will also depend on Carnival-goers themselves. It was the good behaviour of the million this year which made the event a success, just as it was the shocking behaviour of those who robbed and killed last year which made that parade a disaster. Claire Holder and the Met got the blame. But neither of them robbed or killed anyone. In the final analysis, Londoners hold the future of Carnival in their hands.

It is, perhaps, an unfortunate sign of the times that we should judge the event a success because the murderers and robbers stayed away. But it is satisfying nonetheless that the only aftermath of Carnival this year is a few minor arrests and the massive clean-up operation under way .

It is not yet the event we hope it will be. But it's a start.

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