London’s far too exclusive already, so don’t start charging people for the New Year’s Eve fireworks

It may seem like a sensible idea, but Boris Johnson's plan sets a worrying new precedent

London's New Year's Eve fireworks event is going to be ticketed this year for the first time at £10 a head (Getty)

The New Year’s Eve fireworks extravaganza in London is something I have a soft spot for. This is even though I know full well that it represents an enormous amount of money essentially burnt, and the smoke hanging in the air long after it is all over can hardly improve the capital’s already poor air quality.

It appeals to me partly because I watched my first New Year’s Eve fireworks abroad and, until London finally jumped on the bandwagon, I was always envious of continental cities that celebrated the turn of the year in this way. Most of all, though, I applaud the New Year’s Eve fireworks as a genuinely popular and open event. Whoever you are, you can come to central London and you have as much chance as anyone else of having a good time. People are out to enjoy themselves, and a happy atmosphere that prevails allows this evening, rather like the 2012 Olympics, pretty much to police itself.

This is not to say that everything is trouble-free, or that no one ever gets hurt or mugged. But for the almost million-strong crowd that now assembles through New Year’s Eve afternoon, the worst problem is actually trying to leave when it is all over, even though – another satisfactory popular touch – public transport is free.

Alas, all I have just said must go into the past tense. From this year, the Mayor, Boris Johnson, has announced, London’s New Year fireworks will be ticket-only. The reason is, on the face of it, unimpeachable. There are just too many people – and there would doubtless have been even more this year, given that last year’s display was probably the best so far. The banks and bridges of the Thames have been heaving to the point where the gathering has become dangerous.

For those of a certain age, the mayor’s mention of public safety will carry a certain sense of déjà vu. In pre-New Year’s fireworks London, crowds of mainly young people gathered in and around Trafalgar Square to count down the seconds and crack open their bottles as Big Ben struck midnight. It was a gloriously festive and, at times, dissolute mess – not worthy, it might be said, of the great modern metropolis that London has become.

Then the crush in Trafalgar Square was ruled too dangerous, and we had to watch the sorry sight of this landmark being fenced off after Christmas, to keep people out. Thereafter, the celebration switched to Parliament Square, and after the first – Millennial – fireworks there was no turning back. The river became the new focus.

To give Boris his due, there will be an application process, and the tickets will be an eminently reasonable £10. We’re not talking Glyndebourne or Glastonbury here. The idea is simply to add a hurdle and set a ceiling – 100,000 – to the numbers – and you can see that those with tickets will have a better view and experience.

But this is not the point. If London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks are to be ticket-only, this makes one less popular event in the capital that is truly open to all. And once the principle of tickets has been accepted, the price is unlikely to stop at £10.

If there are too many takers at that price – which there almost certainly will be – the touts will come in and the official price will rise, and before you know it, New Year’s Eve in London will leave the average family with little change from a couple of hundred pounds, plus the hassle of getting there and back. Hey presto, there will be another event in the capital that has become the preserve of a global elite.

As Mayor, Boris Johnson has continued the practice set by his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, of opening up the capital to myriad free events. The River Festival is one such. But while London’s galleries and museums continue free entry for permanent collections, high charges for special exhibitions inevitably limit who can see them – and, increasingly, you can pay even more to avoid the crowds with “special” openings.

Of course, crowds can be dangerous, especially when they are cold, hungry and well-lubricated. But in the interests of equity and resisting central London’s full-tilt rush to become an elite-only enclave, there are some occasions better left first come, first served.