No plans to cancel Nottinghill Carnival

Trinidad and Tobago’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Garvin Nicholas also confirmed there are as yet no plans to cancel the event, which takes place during the August 27 to August 29 UK bank holiday weekend. Nicholas yesterday liaised with organisers of the event London Nottinghill Carnival Limited.

“I spoke with the organisers today. As things stand, I do not think the Carnival will be affected in any way,” he told Newsday.

In a media release issued yesterday, the London Nottinghill Carnival Ltd said the Met had informed it’s moving ahead with its preparations to provide coverage for the event, which normally sees 500,000 congregate on the streets of London. “The MPS have currently made no recommendations to cancel Nottinghill Carnival and we will continue to plan for the event,” the Met said in a statement issued to Nottinghill Carnival. “The MPS continues to work in close liaison with Nottinghill Carnival Ltd and the other partner agencies involved in Nottinghill Carnival. Our plans will be under constant review and this will continue right up to and during the event itself.”

London Nottinghill Carnival Ltd said “the Metropolitan Police Service has not asked us to cancel the event.”

“We will be meeting with the local authorities, carnivalists and the Metropolitan Police Service to assess the severity of the impact the riots may potentially have on Nottinghill Carnival 2011 and to discuss measures that will be put in place to avoid any untoward incidents,” London Nottinghill Carnival Ltd said. In addition to Nottinghill Carnival Limited, the Met has committed to work with Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster and Brent Councils plus other emergency services.

“Our plans will be under constant review and this will continue right up to and during the event itself,” the Met said on its website.

Specialist policing units such as the Mounted Branch, the Marine Policing Unit, British Transport Police, Status Dogs Unit as well as special constables and volunteer police cadets, will be part of the operation to man the carnival.

The Met plans to continue Operation Razorback, which it has conducted every year since 2001 in the weeks leading up to the Carnival, in an effort to target known troublemakers.

Letters warning people known to cause trouble or who may be planning to break the law are expected to be hand-delivered by officers in the days leading up to the event.

Nicholas yesterday said there were no still no reports of incidents involving Trinidad and Tobago nationals and noted that things have quieted in London.

“The clampdown by the police appears to have worked,” he said.

“The wheels of justice have turned very fast so people who have been involved in this are already facing their sentences so I think that sends a very clear message that this is not a crime that is being committed with impunity,” the UK High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, David Snell, said yesterday morning on State TV CNMG. “There has also been a lot of members of the general public helping the police, providing photographs and other witness material so it will be possible to track down those who took part in this criminality.”

He said the riots raised the issue of the role of parents. “It requires a wider debate on what is the role of parenting,” he said.

The High Commissioner said not all of the rioters would have been motivated by a desire to protest the police killing of Mark Duggan, a killing which precipitated the riots.

“Clearly a lot of people took advantage of it. I think it would be impossible to say the criminals raiding shops were protesting against this one individual who was shot in a police exercise which is under investigation now,” he said.

As the UK Parliament, recalled from recess, debated the issue, the British Prime Minister announced a series of measures to deal with riots, including a national plan on gangs; the deployment of the army for guard duty; special police powers to remove face masks; and a review of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.