Carnival was considered a great success by the council and the police. It is an honour to host the biggest street carnival in Europe, but we realise it brings significant inconvenience to residents. We’ve been working hard to improve the experience for residents introducing several new measures this year.
Portaloos
We listened to your feedback and increased the number of portaloos 100% to over 400 in Westminster as well as introducing better signage. These were based within the Carnival zone and the council has reported that this substantially reduced the issue of public urination. We are very keen to hear your views on how effective these measures were as it is something we are keen to continue going forward.
Clean Up
Over 200 residents signed up for the Council funded clean-up of their front gardens and basements. The physical clean up was carried out promptly and we had inspectors out on the street on the Tuesday looking for any missed graffiti. A few tags remain on Artesian Road and Westbourne Grove which the council are dealing with. If you are aware of any additional graffiti please use the report it page on the council website: www.westminster.gov.uk/report-recycling-rubbish-and-street-cleansing-problem or tell us.
Security
The security of our residents and those attending Carnival is paramount. The Met police had over 6,000 officers on duty on Sunday and 7,000 officers on Monday and used stop and search as a deterrent. The number of arrests this year was marginally up on 2017, but significantly down on 2016. We are pleased to report there were no serious injuries this year.
