Strategic Approach to Safety in Cathedral Quarter

Following a review of how we deliver the Safety element of our Business Plan we are announcing a significant strategic shift. Whilst our Street Beat officers were supported by many of our businesses, we have come to the conclusion that one officer cannot deliver stepchange improvements at a strategic level. The harsh reality is that we need a significant increase in the number of officers deployed in Cathedral Quarter and across the City Centre, accordingly we have not renewed our service level agreement with PSNI. The current arrangement will end on 30th November 2024.

If the City centre is the economic driver of the city, and Belfast is the key economic driver of N.Ireland then simply, we need adequate resources to protect our City Centre. Cathedral Quarter BID is working with colleagues to develop a pilot Business Crime Reduction (BCRP) in the area. We will employ a person to work with our businesses on the ground, collating and analysing of crime and ASB evidence. The BCRP will create a body of empirical evidence which can be used to lobby for additional resources.

Information/intelligence collated by the BCRP will be shared with members and used in partnership with Justice Agencies to exclude and deal effectively with persistent offenders. We are planning to have the BCRP on the ground by the Spring of next year. In the meantime, we have contracted with a local private company on a trial period until the end of March 2025. This new CQ Safety Team will be branded with our colours and logo and will provide more routine patrols than the Street beat service. This new team will attempt to have visited your business by the end of January.

After November the old Street Beat number will cease to operate and if you need to report any form of ASB or untoward incident, you can ring 07510075474. If it is an emergency, you should ring 999.

Your BID team maintain an excellent working relationship with all levels at PSNI and you can rest assured that they will continue to police the Cathedral in line with their statutory responsibility. We are grateful and proud of the work carried out by our Street Beat officers and we will do our utmost to work with them to lobby for the resources that they need to do an even better job. If you require further information, please contact us at info@destinationcq.com

---