Safety fears at Blackheath fireworks display

2:14pm Monday 10th November 2008

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OOOHS and aahs were replaced by screams of terror at the Blackheath fireworks display last Saturday (November 8).

A mother feared her three children were going to be crushed as hundreds of people pulled down barriers near Montpellier Vale trying to get out of the event.

Crush fears as event ends

Rebecca Swann had to push a man off the buggy of one of her three-year-old twins as they got caught up in the commotion and she feared her six-year-old daughter had got trampled underneath the hordes.

The marketing manager had pleaded with the stewards to let her family and friends go through into the closed-off road because they had a buggy.

But she says the officials told her Lewisham Council had said the street had to remain closed.

Mrs Swann said: “It was an accident waiting to happen and it was petrifying.

“What would have happened if I hadn’t been able to push the person off the buggy?

“You are talking about a small child getting squashed.

“My daughter wasn’t there and I was screaming ‘where’s my daughter?’ and luckily my husband had pulled her to safety.”

“It was very frightening.”

The resident of Southbrook Road, Lee, had been allowed to take her buggy up the closed off road to get to the event.

Family will not return next year

She does not understand why the officials did not let them use the same route on the way out and says she will not go back next year.

The 42-year-old says her family has been going to the fireworks on the heath for six years.

But they will not be going back because she is now scared of taking her children to the event.

Question mark over why road was not closed

Arnold Tarnling, of Elibank Road, Eltham, contacted the News Shopper because he was concerned about safety on the Greenwich side of the event.

The 47-year-old chartered surveyor says there was not much space for people to stand on the edge of the heath because the A2 was open to traffic.

He has emailed his council to ask why it was not closed.

Mr Tarnling said: “They have to think of the safety of disabled people and children and provide sufficient space for them to stand.

“The obvious way to do this would be to shut the road.”

A Lewisham police spokesman said: “Lewisham police can confirm that there were no instances of crushing at Saturday's successful Blackheath firework display.

“We can confirm that the police and stewards successfully managed a large crowd of more than 50,000 people.”

A spokesman for Lewisham Council said: "This year the decision was made to move the firing site and change some of the crowd flow procedures to ensure the growing numbers of visitors to this event could attend safely.

"On the whole the new arrangements worked very well and visitors could access and leave the site safely and quickly.

"In one very small area of the event the system had to be changed at the last minute and a barrier removed to let visitors through who were used to leaving the event via Montpelier Row."