THE man behind Tottenham Carnival has blamed licensing delays for having to cancel the event with less than a month to go.

Around 8,000 people were expected to attend June 18 event, the culmination of a carnival parade in Bruce Castle Park, and due to host a music stage, fun fair and food and drink stalls.

Nicky Price, who organises the festival, said that the problems due to police concerns over security had left him with too little time to hire essential equipment with the money available.

He said: “The truth is the delays have put us into a really difficult position.

“We don't get any money from the council – we get all our cash from sponsors and donations, so we have a limited budget.

“So we had to hold everything back and not order things until we were sure we had the license.

“But by the time we'd secured it our suppliers had run out of everything and it would have cost far too much to order new supplies at such short notice.

“In the end we just had to put our hands up and say we couldn't afford to put it on.”

He added the delays meant all the toilets he had ordered had gone to Glastonbury Festival, while a smaller stage would need to be ordered at high cost – leaving the festival with a funding hole of up to £15,000.

The carnival's parade will still go ahead – starting in Eade Road at 11am and ended in Church Road at 1pm.

The festival faced difficulties getting a license after Haringey Police said the security plans for the event were not up to scratch, and that they could not patrol inside the grounds due to new Met guidelines.

But councillors approved the license last week, leaving the festival's committee in a race against time to put everything in place – a race they seemingly lost.

Mr Price criticised police for not supporting the festival's application for a license.

He said: “We doubled the number of security staff, stewards, toilets and fencing – what more could we do?

“They wouldn't patrol inside the park but they would patrol the perimeter – it's crazy.

“It's disappointing, because this year more than ever – with spending cuts and unemployment – Tottenham and Haringey really needed this.”