Hackney Mayor: ‘We’ll bill organisers for canal rave cleanup’

Regent's Canal choked with bottles in the aftermath of Saturday's rave. Photograph: George Steptoe

Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for the council’s clean-up operation following a massive rave on the Regent’s Canal earlier this month, Hackney Council says.

Council leader Mayor Jules Pipe is keen to recoup nearly £2,000 in costs from the organisers of Canalival – the huge free party on the waterway.

Billed as a “caravan of calamity”, Canalival was cancelled at eleventh hour via social media by the organisers, believed to be a group called Animal Control.

Thousands of revellers turned up anyway for the event on 1 June and left piles of rubbish in the water and on the towpath.

Town Hall staff spent more than six hours on 2 June collecting in excess of five tonnes of rubbish from the area.

In a column in council-funded newspaper Hackney Today Mayor Pipe said residents should not have to pay for the clean-up operation and said the Town Hall had been “right to refuse to support Canalival”.

Prior to the event on Facebook Canalival’s organisers claimed the Town Hall had initially been supportive of the event.

On 31 June when the Hackney Citizen contacted the council to ask about its position on Canalival, a spokesman would not be drawn on whether or not the Town Hall was opposed to it – in contrast to the Canal and River Trust which immediately provided a comment criticising the event.

But on Monday Mayor Pipe confirmed the council had been in discussions with the event’s organisers, who have consistently declined to speak to the Hackney Citizen.

Mayor Pipe said “some people” had accused the council of being “killjoys” but did not specify who.

He added: “I was appalled by the anti-social behaviour, noise and disgraceful amounts of litter that were left behind and I know that it was unpleasant for residents who live nearby.

“Many [people] stayed until the early hours of the morning and their behaviour was simply unacceptable.”

The council has written to the organisers expressing concern over how the event had been handled.

But the announcement about recouping costs raises questions about how this might be done, given the nebulous nature of the group behind Canalival.

Mayor Pipe added: “It’s our priority to make Hackney a safe, clean place to live and it’s important that we get that balance right.”

The statement said the council will hold consultation with locals over the future of the night time economy in Dalston over the summer.