-optimized.jpg){kind=avatar}
Following on from the recent article ‘About pubwatches’; more about the securing of the night-time economy.
Another National Pubwatch committee man is Trevor Pepper, operations manager at CV1. Thatโs the public-private company that manages Coventry city centre, in charge of everything from marketing to CCTV.
Trevor described the evening ambassadors as eyes and ears, rather than as a strict security patrol. There are three, though CV1 is one short and is looking to recruit another in the near future. He said: โThey mainly work Wednesday to Saturday, between the hours of 6pm and 4am; and their primary role is to support the night-time economy.โ He added that the idea dated from 2002 – Coventry having claim to being pioneers in night-time patrols. Previously as in other places, wardens, ambassadors, uniformed meeters and greeters, call them whatever – โhostsโ is a vogue term – were working with the day-time economy until 6pm, but the night-time pubs, clubs, restaurants and so on lacked such support. About 60 per cent of the evening ambassadorsโ role, Trevor added, is to support the pubwatch scheme, which has 60 licenced premises. The ambassadors make welfare checks, keep pubwatch members up to date with information such as the photos of drinkers banned from membersโ premises, and collect reports to take back to the city pubwatchโs committee members. On the street the ambassadors provide reassurance for pub-goers, and deal with low-level anti-social behaviour. Trevor (who has a local government and police background) did add that the ambassadors are not encouraged to break up fights and the like. That said, the ambassadors do carry radios with a direct link to police, and a link to the city centre CCTV control room, run by CV1. When Professional Security mentioned seeing โSecurityโ flourescent-jacket-wearing patrollers on Broad Street in Birmingham city centre one evening, Trevor replied that the Broad Street night-time wardens had been trained by CV1. Uniformed patrols, then, that provide customer service besides a (however understated) reassurance policing role, are a part of the modern night-time city centre, often paid for by recently-added taxation on businesses. Coventry and Broad Street in Birmingham are among town and city centres that voted for BID (Business Improvement District) status. BID areas can then use the extra tax for services such as general or specialist (anti-graffiti) cleaning – the CV1 evening ambassadors, Trevor reported, can direct CV1โs cleaners to what areas need attending to most. While businesses have not chosen BIDs in every place that they have gone to the vote, a BID area has the advantage over a voluntary grouping in a business crime reduction partnership that everyone in a BID pays. A typical lament of a crime reduction partnership is of freeloading – that is, those who refuse to pay to join the partnership get the same benefit of reduced crime as those who pay.
