Liverpool City Council commissioned the independent report into the staging of Liverpool FC’s Premier League title victory parade last summer, which saw an estimated 1.2m people descend on the city to celebrate.
Safety expert Eric Stuart was tasked with looking at planning ahead of the parade last summer, in particular whether traffic and crowd management had been adequate.
The incident on Water Street, in which Doyle, 54, used his car as a “weapon” and drove at crowds “in a rage”, was a criminal matter – and outside the scope of Stuart’s report.
In his evaluation, Stuart said that the “huge crowd” was the “biggest ever seen in the city” and there were several reasons for this – including the fact fans knew Liverpool had won the title early in the season and therefore had more time to plan a trip to the city to mark the occasion.
It was also the first victory parade of its kind, despite Liverpool previously winning the 2019-2020 season when Covid had prevented any extended celebration.
In addition, the parade was held at the end of a busy bank holiday weekend, falling at the same time as BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend and the arrival in the city of Cunard’s Queen Anne to mark the cruise line’s 185th anniversary.
Stuart suggested in future major events of this kind might be better held in isolation.