Memorandum by the Bolton Townsafe Partnership
Group (EVN 03)
INTRODUCTION
1. Since the middle of 2004 Bolton has been
developing a partnership to address concerns about alcohol related
crime and disorder within its town centre. This is proving very
useful and is helping to improve further the co-ordination between
various public agencies and between them and the licensed trade
and other stakeholders.
2. This note explains the arrangements we
have made and outlines some of the issues which we face as the
partnership develops.
THE TOWN
3. Bolton is a fairly self contained town
of about 265,000 people on the north western edge of the Greater
Manchester conurbation. It nevertheless has strong, direct links
to Manchester City Centre and the cultural and entertainment facilities
there.
4. Bolton town centre is a sub-regional
shopping centre. It has not traditionally been a significant office
location although the mixture of public sector employment (including
the Council, University and further education sectors), manufacturing,
service sector and retailing activities means that about 19,000
jobs are located within the centre (about one in five jobs within
the borough as a whole). In recent years there has been a significant
expansion in residential provision in the centre and this is something
the Council is keen to encourage further.
5. Several large development projects are
being progressed at present, including transport infrastructure,
new retail schemes, housing projects and (at the formative stage)
a major scheme entitled "the Cultural Quarter".
6. Like many other towns and cities Bolton
has a strong provision of evening venues in its centre and this
is especially active each weekend. Interestingly, a number of
evening venues were established in off-centre locations over the
last decade (notably in the very successful Middlebrook retail
and business park near Horwich, and in a leisure park (cinema,
fitness and restaurant provision) to the north of Bolton) and
these have not been a success, probably because they lacked a
critical mass and were also away from easy public transport. Most
of these facilities have now closed and Bolton town centre is
therefore the focus of activity and has seen significant expansion
and modernisation of bars and clubs in recent years.
7. The local authority is very interested
in the evening economy, partly because it helps bolster the viability
of the town centre generally and the employment there (in a very
competitive retail market within the region), and also because
it is concerned to ensure an attractive cultural provision for
all sections of the community in a safe and attractive environment.
This interest has, of course been progressed in partnership with
the other stakeholders and regulators within the centre.
TOWN CENTRE
MANAGEMENT
8. The town centre has benefited from the
presence of an active town centre management arrangement for over
a decade. The Bolton Town Centre Company is an independent legal
entity which brings together people from both the public and private
sector to tackle a variety of tasks within Bolton. These include
the marketing of the centre, animation of streets, running an
ambassador scheme, running a security scheme for retailers and
supporting their partners in the promotion of investment.
9. The company is funded by subscriptions
from its membership, local authority support, some street trading
and advertising income and a combination of other funding, often
exploiting special funds for particular projects.
10. The Company's involvement in the management
of the evening economy builds on its successful daytime town centre
management activities. The Company has been an important vehicle
to draw licensees into participation in the Bolton Townsafe Partnership.
THE BOLTON
TOWNSAFE PARTNERSHIP
11. Bolton, in common with many towns and
cities across the country, has experienced a rise in violent crime
in the evening at weekends linked to alcohol consumption. The
reasons behind this are many and complex, but simply put there
is an issue with a "binge drinking culture" across the
country.
12. Best practice was researched from across
the country with good examples being seen locally with "Manchester
City Safe", and further afield in Liverpool, Leeds, and Westminster.
This phenomenon, however, is not restricted to large towns and
cities, with many smaller towns and large villages experiencing
an increase in the level of alcohol related disorder.
13. There has been recognition nationally
that the issue of alcohol related crime and disorder is not for
the police to tackle in isolation. In fact the police enforcement
action is a response to the consequences of alcohol related disorder.
Many agencies, including the Council, have a role to play in the
prevention of disorder and management of town centres and licensing
of premises.
14. The strategic partnership approach is
recognised nationally as being the way to take this agenda forward
and this is the model adopted in Bolton. Reporting to the borough's
strategic partnership, the Bolton Townsafe Partnership Group is
the co-ordinating group for multi-agency working to reduce the
levels of alcohol related violent crime.
15. A broad range of initiatives aimed at
addressing violent, alcohol related crime and disorder in Bolton
town centre have been developed and either implemented or are
due to be launched in the near future.
16. The Bolton Townsafe Partnership Group
held its inaugural meeting on 2 July 2004. The group was established
by Bolton's Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership (a strategic
partnership), to address the issue of violent crime in Bolton
town centre.
17. At this inaugural meeting a wide range
of partners were in attendance including GM Police, the Council's
Community Safety Service, Bolton Town Centre Company, a licensees
representative, the Council's Environment department (car parks,
licensing, economic development, planning, trading standards),
the Council's Commercial Services department (street cleaning,
security and response), GM Passenger Transport Executive, First
Bus, GM Fire & Rescue Service, and GM Ambulance Service.
18. It became clear at this meeting that
partners were already engaged in activity in and around the town
centre, but with better co-ordination between them more impact
could be achieved. A number of gaps were identified in provision
(eg the need for ambassadors, better co-ordination, involvement
of licensees, sharing of information about the impact of violence
on accident and emergency services) and partners came up with
suggestions as to how these could be addressed.
19. The Partnership has subsequently organised
itself with a strategic Partnership group to give overall direction
and an Evening Economy sub-group to discuss operational issues
between the public agencies and with the licensed trade.
INITIATIVES
20. Within the Partnership a number of initiatives
have been launched. CCTV monitoring has been improved by extending
the current scope and hours of coverage within the town centre,
although finding sufficient resources for this is still a challenge.
Communications issues between the CCTV monitoring suite and GMP
are also being addressed. Further training of monitoring staff
by police officers in "Sixth Sense" techniques and police
presence during the hours of Operation Siren has been arranged.
Operation Siren is a multi-agency task team which goes out in
the evening to deliver high profile enforcement, to check how
well licensed premises are managed, and also to reassure the public
and others that Bolton wishes to see itself as a safe place for
visitors.
21. A Night Time Economy Manager has been
appointed to work for the Bolton Town Centre Company to ensure
that the service offered by the Company continues into the evening,
although we still have the common problem of animating the town
centre between about 6 pm and 8 pm. The Night Time Economy Manager
leads on a number of initiatives on behalf of the partnership.
A key factor in the success of the initiative will be the number
of licensed premises that sign up to the Town Centre Evening Economy
Membership package, and 24 out of 56 licensees are already on
board (and the number is increasing). The membership package is
outlined in the appendix to this note.
22. Three part-time Town Centre Night Time
Ambassadors have been appointed by the Town Centre Company, building
upon a successful private initiative originally piloted by licensees
in the Nelson Square area of Bolton town centre. These officers
provide a reassuring uniformed presence in the Town Centre liaising
with visitors and door staff, giving advice, directions and acting
as an "early warning" system for potential trouble spots.
They are equipped with radios which link directly to licensees
and the police (and which allow the licensees themselves to share
information on unfolding events).
23. The Town Centre Company is advised of
fixed penalty notices issued and other disruptive behaviour and
in many instances the Company will write to the individual involved
advising them that their behaviour will be monitored by the police
and the town centre ambassadors and that this could lead to an
Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) being issued against them.
This helps greatly to reinforce the message that such bad behaviour
will not be tolerated. If difficulties persist the intention is
to proceed where appropriate to an Acceptable Behaviour Contract
rather than move directly to an ASBO.
24. Acceptable Behaviour Contracts are also
contemplated for individual bar staff, door staff and licensees
where problems have occurred with, for example, under age sales
and drinking being permitted. The whole intent is to make the
individuals and licensees more accountable. It is too early to
say to what extent this will be successful.
25. Agreements are being put in place to
share information with licensees and door staff about people subject
to Anti-social Behaviour Orders who have a geographic restriction
on entering the town centre and associating in groups. People
in breach of their ASBO conditions can be arrested by the police.
26. Seminars are run by the Town Centre
Company for businesses to help their planning and understanding
of evening economy operations and these will include information
for licensees about the new licensing regulations given by people
from the relevant agencies.
27. Late night buses have been introduced
providing transport out of Bolton town centre along eight routes
around the borough, to Manchester via Farnworth, and to Wigan
via Atherton, Tyldesley and Leigh. These services are operated
by First Bus with a subsidy from GMPTE. The passengers are charged
a £2 flat fare to simplify operations. This is worth almost
£150,000 of new investment in Bolton in the first year.
28. Regular multi-agency visits to licensed
premises are conducted on a structured basis by the Community
Protection Unit which includes the police, fire service, local
authority environment enforcement team, trading standards and
others. Premises are targeted on the basis of intelligence and
history of problems with incidents of disorder. This involves
evidence gathering with follow up action agreed with the licensee/manager
which is then followed up to ensure that the action is indeed
taken. Where this is not the case further enforcement measures
are taken. This approach will become more important once the Licensing
Act is fully implemented and to support the implementation of
any Alcohol Disorder Zones.
29. Tackling off-license sales to under
age drinkers is also seen as an important ingredient in the control
of anti-social drinking since this is often the way in which young
people are introduced to the behaviour.
30. Education campaigns are being prepared
to advise people about safe drinking and techniques for dealing
with peer pressure to drink irresponsibly or accept drugs. A punitive
enforcement approach will not in itself deliver a change in drinking
culture and appropriate education and treatment will be needed
in a targeted way which can distinguish between the case of the
occasional or regular "binge drinker" as opposed to
the "dependent" alcohol user. There is potential for
an enhanced alcohol arrest referral scheme to target problematic
drinkers, although this would require more resources.
31. Work takes place with the local press
and TV to improve public understanding of the Partnership's work
and make people feel safer.
32. Other issues under consideration include
looking at the street cleaning regimes in the town centre to see
if it would be possible to get cleaning teams operating during
the early hours of the morning when the night clubs and late bars
are closing and there are large numbers of people on the street
discarding food and drink and related containers and cartons.
In Manchester city centre street cleaning teams are used as a
mechanism for dispersing crowds by driving machinery along pavements
and spraying water.
33. In some other local authority areas
they have used the town centres to provide a mix of cultural experiences
so that the centres are not dominated by young people indulging
in the drinking culture. In Bolton, Victoria Square and the area
surrounding the Town Hall provides an excellent on street venue
for concerts, theatre, and street artists. Manchester, Leeds and
Liverpool have all utilised their town centres to this effect.
34. The planning authority encourages a
mixture of uses throughout the town centre, although the current
land use plan for the town centre recognises an "evening
economy" area along the two streets where clubs and bars
are predominantly located. The concentration of facilities in
this way wins the support of police in that it makes their geographical
stretch easier to manage.
MONITORING
35. Both GMP and the Council based Community
Safety Service will be monitoring reports of violent crime within
the town centre to ensure that the additional activity is having
an impact. The Partnership will also be monitoring the statistical
data to target problematic licensed premises, locations and individual
offenders. The Partnership has produced an action plan on Tackling
Violent Crime, which has a town centre delivery plan, complimented
by an Anti-Social Behaviour and Alcohol Abuse delivery plan.
THE BOLTON
TOWN CENTRE
COMPANY ROLE
36. The delivery and co-ordination of several
new activities fall to the Bolton Town Centre Company. Building
on the success of a daytime business crime initiative the Company
agreed to manage the evening economy scheme in particular and
to draw in the support and co-operation of the venue operators.
The town centre management company placed the responsibility for
this new scheme with its existing Business Crime Manager and also
employed an evening economy manager to oversee operations. She
is supported by three part-time Evening Ambassadors (Thursday-Saturday,
8 pm-3 am).
37. The various partners involved in the
scheme meet their own costs when operating in the town centre.
This has required each partner to consider the priority which
each gives to their activities and the extra value that can be
derived for themselves and the town from better co-ordination.
Some additional funding has also been sought under the Community
Safety Fund. In the case of the Town Centre Company, it has particular
co-ordinating and operational responsibilities but little in the
way of available base funding from its own resources. Grant money
was provided through Bolton's Crime & Disorder Partnership
to launch the scheme. This supplied £46,600 for base funding
for the first 12 months. In July/August 2004 a membership scheme
for venue operators was put in place and the hope is that this
will provide enough funding to maintain the project after special
funds have diminished. This is quite a challenge however.
ISSUES
38. A number of issues remain to be addressed
by the Partnership:
(a) Resources—sustaining the activity
into the longer term will require a stable funding base. The degree
to which a membership scheme can sustain the Town Centre Company
in particular must be debatable. Other partners will often find
it difficult to apply mainstream funds, although successful outcomes
will help make the case.
(b) CCTV—this is an important addition
to the operational effectiveness of the partnership, and Bolton
has been fortunate to secure capital funding for its provision.
As with many of these schemes however, the difficulty becomes
one of finding the revenue funding to run it. Current involvement
includes the Town Centre Company, the Police, car parking operatives
and officers engaged in the safety of prostitutes in the town
centre. However a common agreement about resourcing needs to be
reached.
(c) Use of Fixed Penalty Notices—these
are much more used now, although the operational effectiveness
of the police is still impacted adversely if the Notices are preceded
by an arrest with all this implies for police leaving the street
to deal with the case. The majority of offences which result in
an FPN being served are arrestable offences and the police find
it difficult to serve an FPN if someone is under the influence
of alcohol. The police have yet to decide whether they would be
willing to authorise Council officers to issue FPN's for breaches
of trading and licensing laws.
(d) Membership scheme—the current
scheme is voluntary and there are some licensees who are most
unlikely to join voluntarily. In view of the wider benefit involved
it would be useful if membership of a competent partnership could
be enforced using licensing conditions.
(e) Taxi trade—Bolton still needs
to involve its taxi trade in a full way. Discussions reveal that
they would like to see taxi rank marshals in the evening, although,
as so often, there is no agreement as yet about how this would
be funded.
(f) Insurance—on a small but significant
point, there have been some problems in securing public and employer
liability insurance for the ambassadors—partly because the
Bolton Town Centre Company is a small organisation.
APPENDIX
EVENING ECONOMY MEMBERSHIP SCHEME
A number of benefits are offered to licensees
joining the Evening Economy Membership Scheme:
A radio link between members and the enforcing
authorities, emergency panic button.
Ambassadors available both evening and daytime (carrying
radios).
Free security assessments of premises.
Targeted patrolling.
Full training and advice on the correct protocols
to follow, including data sharing policy under the Data Protection
Act.
An Evening Economy Manager to bring all licensees
together in regular meetings.
Business Information Crime Data system.
CCTV.
Liaison with Bolton Borough Council on the licensees'
behalf.
Confidential advice and assistance.
Promotion through "Centre View" (a four
page monthly newsletter that goes to all the businesses in the
town centre).
Dedicated page in "Daytime Night Time"
(Quarterly 24 page publication free with the Bolton Evening News).
Exclusion Scheme for bad behaviour.
Help with the "No ID No Entry" scheme.
An intelligence lead scheme to build historical data
on all matters of violent disorder. This in turn may be used in
extreme cases for application for anti social behaviour orders
on individuals who repeatedly causes nuisance, alarm or distress
to any one else wishing to enjoy a safe evening in the town centre.
"Best Bar None" Awards planned for
top premises administered by the BTCC.
Free Seminars for the licenses covering relevant
issues.
Assisting the Police with many issues including:
Police targeting licensed premises.
Drug awareness—a significant issue in Bolton
town centre.
How to manage in a responsive way.
Top Tips for Top Premises.
Conflict resolution.
Use of enforcement powers of the police and other
agencies.
Fees for membership are currently scaled against
rateable value.
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