Night time economy expert calls for inquiry into Nottingham Christmas Market
A Nottingham night time economy expert is calling for an independent public inquiry into why the Nottingham Christmas Market was allowed to go ahead at the weekend.
Jo Cox-Brown, director of Night Time Economy Solutions, says a review of how the event came to be allowed to be held in Nottingham’s Old Market Square needs to happen after it descended into chaos on Saturday evening and finally cancelled altogether on Sunday afternoon by organisers the Mellors Group and Nottingham City Council after concerns were raised about a lack of social distancing.
Mellors Group and the council issued a joint statement yesterday (December 6) saying “Following ongoing meetings, including observing strong city centre footfall again, we have made a joint decision not to reopen Nottingham Christmas Market this year.
“A wide range of measures had been put in place to ensure the market followed the Tier 3 guidance in relation to outdoor markets and fairgrounds. Plans were in place to control access to help manage the number of people entering the site at any one time and to continually monitor this throughout Saturday. However, numbers were too large to implement these effectively.”
Cox-Brown say she was assured by Nottingham City Council on Friday night that the event had been signed off by Public Health, The Safety Advisory Group and Nottinghamshire Police.
She told TheBusinessDesk.com: “I would love to know who in these organisations signed off the event, what relevant experience they have, do they have any event professionals sat on the Safety Advisory Group.
“It would also be good to understand if they had a risk assessment, and if so who signed off the risk assessment.”
Cox-Brown added that all people operating in Nottingham city centre need to held to “the same high standards”.
She said: “I think that there needs to be an independent public inquiry as to why this event was allowed to proceed, and why it wasn’t brought to a halt when the numbers swelled, and when there was a party on the first evening.
“I think that we need to know whether the Police are going to do a license review on Mellors for their poor handling of the event, in the same way, that they would do if this had happened in a pub, bar, or nightclub. Especially as this is not the first major incident associated with them running events on the square, only last year there was a major brawl that brought the city into national disrepute.”
Mellors Group have so far not responded to questions submitted by TheBusinessDesk.com.
