Liverpool is a Purple Flag city and has been for twelve successive years. This means that you can rest assured that if you are visiting any cultural events and attractions in the city centre of an evening and night time, that we actively promote your safety and well being.
What is Purple Flag?
Purple Flag is a town and city centre award – it’s like the Blue Flag for beaches or Green Flag for parks – which aims to raise the standard and broaden the appeal of town and city centres in the evening and night time.
Places that are awarded the status are recognised for achieving excellence in providing a vibrant mix of entertainment while promoting the safety and wellbeing of visitors and local residents.
The Purple Flag programme is managed by the Association of Town and City Management (ATCM) which works alongside a partnership of key stakeholder groups backed by Government, police and businesses.
Liverpool, which first gained the Purple Flag in 2010, has continued to demonstrate that we have a safe and well-managed night time economy.
How is Purple Flag Awarded?
A team of independent assessors review a number of aspects of the city’s night time offer including the policing, stewarding and messaging within bars, restaurants, shops, car parks, theatres, signage and public transport – and, most recently, how they are responding and adapting to Covid-19 guidelines.
What makes Liverpool a Purple Flag city centre?
Liverpool is a vibrant city with a busy and active cultural scene which we are very proud of. From music to theatre, comedy to performance, not to mention a year long programme of events, some of the best retail, food and drink and leisure pursuits in the country – there’s always something happening in Liverpool. A lot of these activities take place in the evening and into the night and it is vitally important to us that all residents and visitors feel safe in the city.
We work in close partnership with retail outlets, restaurants, bars, transport providers and city services within Liverpool City Council to ensure that everyone feels safe and welcome in the city centre and that we are inclusive of everyone regardless of age, gender, orientation, race or ability.
Liverpool has been praised for:
- Our impressive use of outdoor space
- Partnership working during the pandemic
- The provision of safe spaces and crime initiatives
- The engagement and partnership with residents
We have also received special praise for our innovative “Liverpool Without Walls” programme which has been recognised by Purple Flag with our award status by ATCM. This programme allowed hospitality venues to bring ‘the inside out’, and to keep visitors safe without compromising on their experience.
What else are we doing?
As well as working with businesses to help them operate safely during and following the pandemic. We have also introduced an LGBTQ+ ‘You’re Safe Here’ accreditation.
If you see “You’re Safe Here” signage in venues across the city, we want you to know that you are safe in venues and that staff in the hospitality sector are trained and know what to do in the event of a transphobic or homophobic incident.
We have also secured funding to tackle violence against women and girls, which will pay for extra CCTV monitoring on the streets and ‘by-stander training’ for transport and bar staff.
Work is also ongoing with ‘KnifeSavers’, a not-for-profit programme that empowers people to deal with bleeding caused by knife injuries through Bleed Control Kits. The hope is to have these kits mounted in cabinets in key locations in the city centre, much like defibrillators are.
