Safe and Clean

Safety and Security – Ensuring the town is Safe and Clean

The ‘Safe and Clean’ projects of GY BID play a crucial role in promoting the town centre as a safe place to work, live and visit. The Great Yarmouth Business Improvement District helps create a more secure and friendly trading environment through our “ShopSafe” scheme that includes Town Centre CCTV, Digital radio link, exclusion scheme, and dedicated street wardens.

 Nationally retail crime and violence against shop workers has become an increasing concern for shops and businesses across the UK with the British Retail Consortium reporting that retail theft cost the industry £2.3billion in 2024 whilst a recent national survey of shopworkers identified that around 200 retail employees were attacked at work every day. Both these figures represent significant increases on previously reported numbers.

 The GY BID funded crime reduction initiatives have given businesses the tools to tackle retail crime and the reduce the vulnerability of their staff to violence. The ShopSafe scheme, incorporating a retail radio link, exclusion scheme, direct support for the CCTV control room and the information sharing ‘Disc Crime Management’ database, has been awarded national accreditation by the National Business Crime Centre, a Secured by Design official police security initiative. During the current BID term, the Town Centre Partnership has agreed an Information Sharing Agreement (ISA) with Norfolk Police allowing them to share with our members, through the Disc Crime Management tool, information and images of offenders, criminal behaviour orders, wanted and missing persons. The businesses participating in the ShopSafe scheme are supported by the GY BID funded town centre Street Wardens, enhancing the overall package whilst providing a visible re-assuring presence both to people working in and using town centre businesses. The street wardens, working closely with the town centre police patrols, CCTV Operators and Council enforcement officers have continued to tackle retail crime, anti-social behaviour, and environmental crime during the last five years of GY BID, promoting a safer and friendlier town centre for all stakeholders.

Since the start of the fourth BID term in 2021, the Great Yarmouth CCTV system, which is also managed by the Town Centre Partnership, has been extended by an additional 31 public space CCTV cameras with funding from the previous Governments Safer Streets fund. This includes additional cameras installed in and around the town centre and brings the total number of cameras monitored 24/7 from the Great Yarmouth CCTV control room to 91 providing a significant increase in coverage. The unique way in which the Great Yarmouth’s CCTV system is managed by the Town Centre Partnership, and with significant funding from GY BID, has promoted business engagement with police and local authority enforcement officers. The highly experienced and skilled CCTV operators play a proactive role in monitoring and reporting crime through having a direct police radio link to Norfolk Police HQ and officers on the ground. Businesses participating in the ShopSafe digital radio link can contact the CCTV control room operators at any time to request support from street wardens and police, with emergencies quickly communicated to the Police control room for response.  

 Key achievements during 2024/25:

 

  • 1,690 total incidents recorded via CCTV were responded to in 2024/25, resulting in 535 arrests
  • During 2024/25 957 ShopSafe incidents attended by street wardens
  • 165 12 month Exclusion and Warning notices issued during 2024/25
  • Business Crime Summit held in collaboration with Police and Great Yarmouth Borough Council
  • Direct police crime reporting using the Disc App went live in 2025
  • Information Sharing Agreement (ISA) signed with Norfolk Police
  • 2024/25, 67 arrests by Police attending ShopSafe incidents (up from 52 previous year)
  • TCP ShopSafe scheme Nationally accredited
  • Usage of retail radio link increased to over 100 users including shops, wardens and police.
  • The Disc Crime Reduction Platform has data on over 600 crimnal subjects
  • Stockloss recovered represents 58% of total thefts reported saving on Disc

 

During 2025 the Town Centre Partnerships Business Crime Reduction Partnership ‘ShopSafe’ underwent an assessment against the BCRP National Standards and was awarded the BCRP ‘Secured by Design’ Official Police Security Initiative Accreditation underlining the scheme’s effective management and good practice.