Safe and Sound Working Group Update

Street Operations Update

We have a recruited new member of the team, a former BID warden who has been working with BIDs for the last three years. Dimitri’s experience means that he understands what BIDs provide for the levy payers. He also already has a relationship with local partners, street community and support services.

The security team continue to arrange appointments, sign post and go to local support services with individuals, including key partners like Sifa Fireside, Trident, and St Basils. They also continue to carry out patrols with support workers to identify key intelligence around the on street community in order to provide better support.

The team also continue work closely with businesses in the District, West Midlands Police and Birmingham City Council to tackle and gather evidence around anti social behaviour. At the end of September the team carried out some joint work with local neighbourhood police officers to enforce the new public space protection order prohibitions at some of the District’s hot spot locations.  

Future Business District 

Safe and Sound’ has three identified themes that present opportunities for a joined up partnership approach to developing high-quality public realm spaces.  

These themes have now been added as a standing agenda item for future working group meetings, enabling us to continually reflect and measure how our activities improve performance against each theme.

  1. Safer Travel  – Opportunities to work smarter with the West Midlands Safer Travel Partnership in encouraging safer travel advice on our versatile public transport networks, particularly during evenings when commuters are likely to visit night-time economy hospitality venues.  
  2. Women’s Night Safety Charter – Project work, Forums and Networks that can initiate work streams and make pledges aimed at increasing women’s perceptions of safety at night.  
  3. Purple Flag – ATCM accreditation scheme that assesses night-time economy management processes and good practice. Colmore BID is collaborating with a national police organisation to create a pilot “Safe Space” accreditation scheme, bench-marked against a range of National Police Safety Standards applicable to all business sectors within both day and night-time economies.

Safe & Sound Strategic Project Officer Update 

Following the delivery of a safe and secure Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG), work is gathering pace to ensure Safe and Sound projects continue to gain momentum delivering tangible results.

Our partnership work associated with cyber security and counter terrorism continues to evolve to meet the challenges of current risks and threats. The emphasis is very much on preparedness and early intervention. Both work streams currently offer BID Member benefits of free awareness training, not for profit services, as well as free CT threat/response Apps via the new Protect UK branding. As we move towards Cyber Security Awareness Month (October) we will step up our activities and publicity to maximise impact.

Work continues to road-test our new incident reporting platform with a small, selected group of Building Managers. Earlier software issues have been resolved and we are now robustly testing the functionality of the platform ahead of a planned publicised wider roll out across the Colmore Business District.

The Building & Facilities Managers Forum continues to gain popularity and membership (45 members to date). The membership has recently benefited from a bespoke CWG Security Briefing by CT Policing West Midlands, Birmingham Prepared & CWG Event Management, and on the 12th October there was an exclusive “Network & Drinks’ event for existing members and interested enquirers.

Our ambitious plans to pilot a new “Safe Space Accreditation Scheme” in partnership with national policing’s Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (Police CPI) has experienced a slight setback. The seed-funding application submitted to the Home Office has been returned with a number of Police CPI related clarification points. We remain hopeful that once these points are resolved the Home Office will release the funds and the project will proceed. The project proposal is to create an Accreditation Scheme applicable to all business sectors within the day and night-time economies of the Colmore BID area; expanding upon the remit of other available Accreditation Schemes that primarily focus on hospitality night-time economies.

Colmore Safer Licensing & Hospitality Network

Our Colmore Safer Licensing & Hospitality Network Advisory Group continues to evolve with new membership and change of Chair. Its purpose is to be a voice of our various hospitality sectors on matters of security and community safety. The Advisory Group helps shape and scrutinise Safe and Sound hospitality-themed project work such as “Ask for Angela” and “LSAVI (Licensing, Security and Vulnerability Initiative) Accreditation Schemes.

Colmore Public Realm Vulnerability Projects

The Colmore Women’s Safety Forum was launched in June 2022 and continues to grow and develop at pace. The over-arching aim of this Forum is to empower and improve the safety of women who visit or work in the Colmore Business District through personal safety information and awareness sessions, support tools, and securing commitment from our businesses to raise awareness of the issues and assist in tackling them. Our next meeting on 8th November 2022 will focus on the safety of women and girls on the public transport infrastructure.

Additional VAIWG activity includes a VAIWG themed ‘Network and Drinks’ event on 29th November 2022 that will help raise awareness of the national charity White Ribbon UK and their enduring work to end male perpetrator violence towards women. Further information including registration details will be circulated in due course. Furthermore, our Safe and Sound Project Officer is offering his support to the Community Safety Partnership team within Birmingham City Council as they embark on creating a new city-wide VAIWG partnership network.  

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