London New Year fireworks: Fake tickets to blame for issues says City Hall
- Published
The view Steve Smith had when he went to see the New Year fireworks
"Fake tickets" were the cause of problems experienced by some trying to watch the New Year fireworks display in central London, City Hall has said.
Complaints about long queues, poor signage and not being allowed into the allocated viewing areas have been made by a number of people.
A spokesperson for the mayor claimed "a number of people at ticket gates had fake tickets and were refused entry.
"Unfortunately this led to delays at entry points."
Ticketing to watch the fireworks was introduced in 2014 to ease the strain on transport and the emergency services.
London's Big Ben rings in new year
One of the disappointed ticket-holders, Steve Smith, took his daughter to celebrate her turning nine at midnight.
He said they saw "zero fireworks" as the entrance was closed at 23:45.
"To say my daughter is heartbroken is an understatement.
"I had this planned for months - I even took the day off work when the tickets went on sale to ensure we had the best chance of getting some."
More than 100,000 tickets were sold at £20 per person.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Nikolaj Hansen-Turton posted an open letter to the mayor to express his disappointment.
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He wrote that he joined a queue that moved about 100 metres (330 ft) in two hours and then crowds started pushing and shoving to an extent that felt "unsafe and scary".
"We are hurt by how unorganised, unsafe, and unprofessional this event was. I pray nobody was seriously hurt by this mismanagement," he added.
Others called the event "a farce", "a shambles" and "a scam".
Steve Smith said crowd surges made him concerned about safety
The X account for City Hall has replied to numerous posts on the website, apologising for the experience and asking them to write to the mayor via his official email.
A spokesperson for the mayor said: "Hundreds of event stewards played their part in delivering a safe and enjoyable event and a wide range of traffic schemes and strict security policies were in place to ensure that everyone who attended the event was safe.
"City Hall continues to work closely with the Met Police to tackle the sale of these fake tickets."
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