Surprising Carnival Figures

3 October 2003

New figures released this week from the Royal Borough, show that considerably more rubbish was collected after Carnival this year, than last. These new figures are a surprise given that crowd numbers were estimated to be significantly down on last year.

Over 190 tons of rubbish was cleared from the streets from the Royal Borough in the days following Carnival. This compares to 170 tons collected the year before when crowd numbers were estimated to be at record levels.

The massive clean up operation undertaken by the Royal Borough was made that little bit easier thanks to better ‘route management’ of the Carnival procession itself. London Notting Hill Carnival Ltd had a route management plan that saw the floats starting earlier and being phased gradually into the main procession itself. The plan worked well and lead to all floats being judged before the agreed close down time on Monday.

These improved timings lead to Carnival winding down earlier, which in turn enabled the Royal Borough to start the massive clear up operation that little bit earlier. This increased time has proved useful, with the Council receiving many congratulatory messages about the quality and speed of the clear up.

The Leader of the Royal Borough, Merrick Cockell said: “The clean-up following Carnival is a mammoth task which requires a tremendous amount of hard work completed to a very tight schedule. The refuse and street cleaning crews are certainly some of the Carnival’s unsung heroes and deserve to be commended.”

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