It cost £1.3 million to put on, involved more than 10,000 fireworks and lasted less than ten minutes.

But for a city still trying to live down its disastrous “River of Fire” display on Millennium Eve, London yesterday had to thank the elements as much as the organisers for its New Year’s Eve redemption.

Those behind the event, which spectators said was the most impressive ever seen in the capital, admitted that the wind that had shut down celebrations across Scotland and northern Britain had improved London’s display dramatically.

It blew away the smoke that often clouds views of the display, making the fireworks seem far brighter than usual.

Christophe Berthonneau, the French pyrotechnician who created the show in partnership with Jack Morton Worldwide (JMW), said: “I was very pleased because the weather was so windy, which helped to make the colours even brighter.

“Last year there was a lot of smoke hanging in the air, which got thicker and thicker. Even though we used the same high-quality Spanish fireworks in both displays, the colours were more vibrant this year because of the wind. It took place between two showers, so we were very lucky.”

It is the fourth New Year’s Eve fireworks organised by Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, whose budget for the event has increased from £1 million in 2003 to £1.3 million in 2006. Jim Donald, of JMW, said: “We have been trying to put London on the map to compete with Sydney and New York and many believe we have got there. Sydney has always been known for its big fireworks displays, but London and New York are now rivalling Sydney.

“We used the best-quality fireworks, handmade in Barcelona. The chemicals create much better colours than the mass- produced Chinese fireworks. We didn’t use a huge amount; it was what we did with them that made the difference.”

A team of 20 riggers placed fireworks on all the brackets of the London Eye and on barges and boats in the Thames.

Mr Berthonneau first became interested in pyrotechnics while working as a theatre designer. He said: “There is no formal training. I became interested in the effects of fire and just learnt by experimenting.

“You need a lot of patience to do displays like this because it takes months of work for just a ten-minute display. It’s a very tense occasion because there is so much that can go wrong. It’s a very precise job.”

The display began with loud, dramatic shells going off between Big Ben’s chimes at midnight. There followed a red, white and blue sequence, then two speedboats crossing the Thames, which appeared as if they were on fire. A rainbow effect was followed by the finale — a large whiteout.

Mr Berthonneau said: “We have used the London Eye before, but it was very different from previous displays in terms of colour, rhythm and lighting.”

Onlookers praised the display as London’s best ever. Kenneth Hibbert, 45, an accountant from Neasden, northwest London, said: “I was there on Millennium Eve and this was so much better. I think we can rival the displays of Sydney, New York and Paris now.”

Police estimate that 350,000 people, the highest number since the millennium celebrations, travelled into the capital for the display. London Ambulance staff dealt with the highest number of emergency calls since the millennium, most of them alcohol-related. Between midnight and 4am, the London Ambulance Service dealt with 1,562 calls, up 8 per cent on the same period last year. At the busiest period staff were taking more than 450 calls an hour.

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