Not with my Carnival You Don't

Notting Hill Carnival bands and sound systems struggled against their own organisation to present a good Carnival for 2002. Debi Gardner and Ansel Wong of The Notting Hill Carnival Trust,  alongside Peter Ramage of  the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Lee Jasper the mayor’s Race Advisor collectively devised  the strategy for Carnival 2002. They operated under the slogan “The New Dawn” and armed themselves with the most expensive lawyers in London  to assume their birthright and take their turn at controlling the Notting Hill Carnival. They oversaw significant changes to carnival’s  objectives and base philosophy, the major change being the inclusion of RBKC and GLA in the design and decision making process. Muddled council officers and ambitious unaligned Black race advisers moved in and imposed a view on Carnival. Carnival’s future depends on its ability to shake them off.   More ......

The new managers at the Notting Hill Carnival Trust had inherited assets of £200,000 from the previous administration, of which £165,000 was cash, money owned by the members of NHCT. They entered into financial strategies with bureaucratic forces at the Town Hall and City Hall for which they have accrued debts of a further £200,000. They lied and stole custody of one of the world’s great collective constructs and compromised the culture out of it. Great institutions sponsored their proposals that led to the removal of the professional standards from the Carnival process. Carnival bands were deprived of their Carnival and now their own representatives have joined with the Town Hall and City Hall to trash their assets.   More ......

South Connections Banned

The Notting Hill Carnival Trust has written to South Connections Carnival band to say it will not be permitted to take part in this years Gala at the Royal Opera House or at the Carnival itself.  The reason given is that Avion Mookram, who is the Chairman of South Connections, has joined the board of The Notting Hill Carnival Limited (a limited company established by the Carnival Community to safeguard their ownership of the Carnival process).   

The current Trustees of the Notting Hill Carnival Trust, who had previously been entrusted with the responsibility of the Carnival’s development for the benefit of the community and who had at one time been asked by the community to go, now perceive this new company set up by the Community as a threat.  More ......