6 October 2011 Last updated at 08:07 ET

Notting Hill Carnival 'at risk', former director says

Chris Boothman said the event had suffered from a shortage of funding and volunteers

The future of the Notting Hill Carnival is "at risk", a former director of the event has warned.

Chris Boothman, who resigned as co-director of the carnival last week, said the event had suffered from a shortage of funding and volunteers.

"We had nothing in terms of attracting the support we needed to make the event work," he said.

But the Notting Hill Carnival Advisory Board said: "The carnival will carry on going in the future."

The board's chairwoman Josephine Scorer said: "We look forward to having ongoing success."

'More dire'

Mr Boothman, who was co-director of the carnival for three years, resigned along with co-director Ancil Barclay.

He said: "It just did not seem to us we had the support from people inside the carnival and outside the carnival to do it safely to the standard everyone expected."

He added that Carnival 2013 would be "even more at risk".

"There will be a certain amount of money around this year because of the Olympics," he said.

"Because of the cuts in public expenditure and everything else next year there's likely to be no money around.

About a million people attend the Notting Hill Carnival each year

"Carnival 2013 could be even more dire that 2012."

Ms Scorer responded: "The 2012 and 2013 carnivals are not at risk."

"I think there is a problem that the event is run by voluntary help.

"We have been working to bring in a change process that will bring in new management, putting the carnival on to secure footing."

Each year, about £1m people attend the carnival, billed as Europe's biggest street festival.

The two-day celebration of Caribbean culture sees parades of colourful costumes and floats run along a procession route from Ladbroke Grove to Westbourne Grove and Chepstow Road, in west London.