In the July 2002 print edition of Professional Security, a return to the security set-up at Alton Towers, the UK visitor attraction.
One Saturday morning, about 90 people in the Cred Street area of Alton Towers were complaining of runny eyes, sore throats and sneezing. When that report came through to the security control room at the visitor attraction, security staff alerted the Staffordshire Ambulance Service. The medics did not know what was causing the outbreak – and it was spreading. Security staff sealed off Alton Towers. Head of security Brian Ward, who was the duty director at the theme park that day, called other senior members of staff, to join the crisis management team, to deal with the media for example. But the unknown problem meant that the crisis managers could not come to the park, but had to work from home instead. Meanwhile ambulances arrived to handle the casualties and a de-contamination unit did their work.
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It was all an exercise. The ‘casualties’ were volunteers, and the scenario was invented by the Staffordshire Ambulance Service, to test Alton Towers’ newly-NHS-trained first responders – volunteer security and medical team members trained throughout last winter to become First Responders. The service’s chief executive Roger Thayne set up this practical two-day exam, that also took the security-first responders into the Blacksmiths, the local pub in Alton village, to resuscitate a ‘heart attack victim’, and onto the roads for miles around to respond to ‘mock car accidents’ – the sorts of calls the First Responders could expect, and indeed are getting. Brian Ward says: "We respond to an eight-minute circle of Alton Towers, which covers all the local villages" It’s a win-win situation – the visitor attraction has gained a lot of medical staff training, and the NHS has extra first responder cover for the rural area. And you might have to pinch yourself when you read this, but Alton Towers does have in mind such things as the good of the surrounding community, as a major local employer. Hence when I went to see Brian Ward first last year, he reported on how the visitor attraction monitors Staffordshire Moorlands Council cameras in Cheadle Town Centre. Brian reports that the weekend scenario (with the added twist that nobody at Alton Towers knew what would be thrown at them) really tested their systems – from: could senior members of staff access their e-mails away from the office, to: could the person responsible dictate a press release about the crisis situation, for the fielding of inevitable press questions (yes, she could). The 24-hour first responder scheme went live in February, the result of over 12 months work. A dozen security and medical staff are first responder trained, and two Alton Towers vehicles carry the NHS logo – one an ambulance, one a security Landrover (pictured, with Brian Ward and security officer Ian Booysen). All vehicles have ambulance service radios so they can speak directly to service headquarters in Stafford. "It’s a brilliant partnership," Brian concludes. "We think other Ambulance Services and companies will probably follow." Alton Towers medical staff already were responding to medical incidents on the theme park, because in size and in numbers of people through the turnstiles Alton Towers is a small town, with everything that an everyday small town sees. (By the way, the park’s relatively casual security officer uniform – open-neck light blue shirt, darker blue NATO-style pullover, baseball cap saying ‘SECURITY’ – is suitable for first responders also, because a collar and tie is not. The uniform already fitted in with the unstuffy dress of the leisure organisation (Brian does not wear a tie on site. He played me a video of a quarterly talk for staff by the Tussauds Group chief executive – and he wasn’t wearing a tie either.)
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What else is new since last I last spoke to Brian last summer’ Well, building work is well under way towards a £50m water park project – a Caribbean-type setting with water rides, with accompanying hotels and conference venue, due to open in April 2003. Brian is part of the project team, looking at CCTV, alarms, and traffic management, so that the architects build security measures into the building plans. That this new build will bring extra visitors and staff into the park – 45 lifeguards alone – was part of Brian’s thinking when he decided to embrace the ambulance service partnership. In the leisure sector, even the leading parks like Alton Towers cannot stand still for a year – they have to keep offering new attractions. As proof, on a weekday in May queues at the park were one hour-long for this year’s new ride Air (pictured). What does this mean for security’ Well, besides thousands of vehicles each day – Brian’s responsibilities include logistics, waste management, and cleaning, besides security – the water park will require its own control room, with links to the existing security control room that monitors not only Alton Towers and Cheadle CCTV but takes calls from other UK sites belonging to the Tussauds Group, the parent of Alton Towers. Another example of the park’s good works, incidentally, is the car crime initiative whereby workers out and about in the early hours, such as council workers, have mobile phones so they can send text messages if they see something suspicious. The Alton Towers control room takes the messages and cascade them to other members of the scheme, such as the local authority, Peak District National Park, and the police.
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Alton Towers has invested in its car park security measures and has been accredited with the Secure Car Parks Award. The audit by the police and Secured Car Parks covers the lot – surveillance, the car park boundary, lighting (to British Standard BS 5489 part nine), vehicular and pedestrian access, signage, and management of car parking. Something Alton Towers had to review in particular was its signage – just as the park (in line with its motto: ‘Where The Magic Never Ends!’) does not have clocks, so as not to remind visitors what time it is, nor did the park have much in the way of signs reminding people that there was such a thing as security measures to prevent crime. As Brian says: "It’s a fine line, between not having enough security and having too much." The park does have security notices saying: ‘you are on film! CCTV cameras in 24-hour use’. Even on a weekday in May, when the car parks are far from full, row upon row of car parking spaces are full (pictured), and under surveillance from fixed CCTV cameras mounted on columns. The Secured Car Parks scheme criteria incidentally recommends parking spaces in straight rows (as at Alton Towers), to avoid blind spots, just as the guide says landscaping should not restrict surveillance, nor provide "areas of concealment". Also according to the guide, thorn hedges may be used to reinforce boundaries, or to minimise opportunities for concealment. New for the 2002 season are the car park entrance barriers from manufacturer Elka, beside a manned gatehouse (pictured), to act as a deterrent to car thieves. Visitors have to buy a £2 token on the park to exit the car park.
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Another exercise last July involved the National Crime Squad. An NCS thank-you letter framed on the wall in reception is merely the most recent in a long line of thank-yous from law enforcers and celebrities. Brian says of the NCS four-day exercise: "I can’t say too much about that, but it involved Tussauds Group, about 150 police and our crisis management team, a ‘plane flight to Amsterdam, a 150-mile drive down a motorway; a massive exercise." The event, paid for by the NCS, covered extortion from a fictitious company. At the Alton Towers end, only Brian Ward knew about the police exercise, and he had to inform his managing director a couple of days before the start that he (the MD) would be a big player in it. Such exercises raise the question for security managers and indeed their bosses: are you, can you afford to be, too busy to spare the time and effort to plan and run through such scenarios’ (And to make them as realistic as possible – Brian adds that Alton Towers’ costume and drama department can make-up the ‘casualties’.) Brian says: "A lot of companies don’t do exercises because they are expensive. But especially after September 11 it’s just one of those things that you have got to do. You have got to be prepared."
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MEB Contracting has helped design, install and maintain security systems at Alton Towers for more than seven years: CCTV integrated intruder and fire alarms systems for the whole site. Having inherited the original system, MEB have relocated the control room, upgraded the system and installed additional CCTV cameras. The system was extended to cover the nearby town of Cheadle, with images within the town relayed back to the theme park control room. For this season, a new CCTV camera has been installed between the Nemesis ride and the new £12m rollercoaster Air. Reg Green, project engineer at MEB Contracting, responsible for the security system at Alton Towers, said: "With only a few weeks’ notice, MEB Contracting was able to evaluate the site and install the CCTV, incorporating it into the existing system. It is critical for the theme park that visitors can enjoy their day in safety. The CCTV cameras ensure that action can be taken quickly if there is a sudden build-up of people in one area."
