Today It’s In Nottingham confirmed that Nottingham City has again achieved Purple Flag status an award give to cities and towns that offer a safe and enjoyable night out.  Awarded by the Association of Town and City Management (ACTM), the Purple Flag accreditation process similar to Green Flag Award for parks and Blue Flag for beaches.  It leads to Purple Flag status for destinations that meet or surpass the standards of excellence in managing the evening and night-time economy.  The criteria looks at five core standards:

• Policy Envelope – an after-hours policy based on research and multi-sector partnership
• Wellbeing – where venues are safe and welcoming, delivering high standards of customer care
• Movement – into, across and away from the city
• Appeal –a wide choices of leisure and entertainment for a diverse range of ages, groups, lifestyles and cultures
• Place – an area that is successful during the day-time and night-time economies, that includes a blend of overlapping activities encouraging people to mingle and enjoy the place.

The Assessment

The A-Z of Consent bus is spotted during the Purple Flag Assessment.

The assessment looks at a range of policies and examples of how different venues and organisations work together in the evening and night-time economy.  The Consent Coalition’s Louise Graham was involved, presenting the Safe Space Pledge and Night-Time A-Z of Consent and joined assessors on an evening and night-time walk around/assessment of the city.  During this time the city was able to demonstrate its safety agendas, including safe spaces, information and the presence of Police, security staff and Street Pastors.

The Purple Flag is awarded to destinations that either meet or exceed expectations across all five criteria.  Highlights noted by the ACTM assessment included the Safe Space Pledge, which has previously been awarded the Best Bar None award for ‘Most Innovative Scheme.’  The Consent Coalition’s work around promoting consent awareness through the Night-Time A to Z of Consent was also noted.

Another UK First

The announcement of Nottingham again being awarded Purple Flag status coincides with the news that Nottingham safety partners are the first in the UK to deploy body-worn video cameras across retail and the night-time economy.  This new scheme is managed by It’s In Nottingham and funded by the Office of Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner through the Late Night Levy.  The cameras give businesses the tools they need to share information to detect and prevent crime, improve feelings of safety and send a clear message that Nottingham won’t stand for violence or abuse.

Alex Flint, CEO for It’s in Nottingham commented:

“Working directly with pubs, bars and clubs across Nottingham city centre gives us a unique perspective on how hard they work to give visitors the diverse, vibrant and safe experiences which they love about our city.  We’re proud to support these businesses by working with our partners to ensure a great night out for leisure visitors and to create a strong city centre business economy.

“The Purple Flag Award reflects effective partnership working across Nottingham city centre, from police, crime prevention teams to major stakeholders like the universities.  This award is rightly shared by everyone who has given their expertise, time and commitment to support our safety initiatives – it’s very rewarding to see them all recognised in this way.”

Louise Graham, Consent Coalition Manager said:

“We are incredibly proud to see Nottingham being awarded the Purple Flag. The Consent Coalition presented several of our important violence against women and girls initiatives, including the Safe Space Pledge and our A-Z of Consent campaigns whilst on the night tour of the city.

“By investing in partnership prevention projects, we can have a positive impact on behaviour change, people’s understanding of consent and creating safe spaces. We were delighted to hear the Purple Flag assessors feedback ‘The specific policies and actions that are excellent or outstanding, and especially worthy of note, included the very impressive VAWG work and initiative – seen as national best practise.’

“The new body worn cameras will provide further reassurance to improving the feelings of safety in Nottingham.”

Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Caroline Henry said:

“I’m really proud of how partners work together to pioneer new initiatives here in Nottinghamshire, such as the new body-worn cameras which haven’t been used anywhere else in the country.

“We know Nottingham is a welcoming place to come and enjoy a fantastic night out, highlighted by the confirmation of Nottingham’s accreditation as a Purple Flag city, which means it has been independently benchmarked as being a safe and enjoyable place to have a night out.”

Notes to Editors:

You can download a Guide to the Safe Space Pledge  More information on the Safe Space Pledge can also be found on the It’s In Nottingham website.

Nottingham’s Purple Flag scheme is led by It’s in Nottingham, Nottingham’s city centre business improvement district, and is supported by partners, including –

• The Office of Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner
• Nottingham City Council
• Nottinghamshire Police
• Nottingham Community Protection
• Violence Reduction Partnership
• Consent Coalition
• Pub Watch
• Nottingham Crime and Drugs Partnership
• Nottingham Trent University
• University of Nottingham
• Nottingham Trent University Student Union
• University of Nottingham Student Union
• Nottingham Street Pastors
• Nottingham City Transport (NCT)
• NET Tram
• Invest in Nottingham (part of Marketing NG)

The ‘after dark’ economy is worth over £66bn annually to the UK, supporting thousands of businesses, employing 4.5% of the UK workforce, and significantly contributing to local economies.

About Purple Flag

The Purple Flag programme was developed following the Civic Trust’s “Night Vision” report in 2006 and is now managed by the Association of Town & City Management.

Purple Flag is:

• An accreditation process similar to Green Flag Award for parks and Blue Flag for beaches. It leads to Purple Flag status for town centres that meet or surpass the standards of excellence in managing the evening and night-time economy.
• A comprehensive set of standards, management processes and good practice examples designed to help transform town and city centres at night.
• A research, training and development programme, to help towns and cities improve their evening and night-time economy.
• A positive initiative that indicates an entertaining, diverse, safe and enjoyable night out.

More information at https://www.atcm.org/purple-flag