‘Evening ambassadors’ to patrol Lincoln at night to keep people safe

In the latest bid to keep the streets of Lincoln safe at night, there will be a group of evening ambassadors patrolling the city to help anyone who feels vulnerable to attacks.

The role of evening ambassadors will be to meet and greet people as they arrive in the city centre, giving information on facilities to provide added value to their visit.

They will also offer to escort vulnerable people back to their cars or hotels, or help them get to a taxi, among other measures.

The scheme has been funded by the government’s Welcome Back fund, and is run by Lincoln Business Improvement Group, with the aim to make these ambassadors the eyes and ears on Lincoln’s streets.

The evening ambassadors will be supplied by ONYX Event Management on behalf of City of Lincoln Council, and the service will be in operation for four months while further CCTV cameras are installed in the city’s key areas.

Simon Walters, director for communities and environment at City of Lincoln Council said: “These ambassadors will act as ‘eyes and ears’, using their radios to report anything untoward.

“They will act as a point of contact to reunite vulnerable people with their friends and refer others to street pastors or other services as appropriate.

“Early next year, we will also be installing more CCTV in the area as part of our Safer Streets funding.

“Lincoln is a great place to live and visit and we want both residents and visitors to feel as safe as possible when out and about in the city at night.”

It is the latest step in the bid to protect Lincoln’s citizens from crime late at night, after Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones received some £400,000 of government funding to make the streets safer earlier this year.

The money will go towards developing curriculum materials which promote women’s rights, encouraging the reporting of crimes and offering wider CCTV coverage of the city centre.

Lee Roberts, operations manager at Lincoln BIG added: “We are pleased to be able to support this scheme and to partner with City of Lincoln Council to ensure that Lincoln is a safe and welcoming city for all who visit, live and work here.

“Already, even after only a short period of time, the relationship with ONYX Event Management is proving to be successful and the feedback received from businesses, partners and members of the public has been extremely positive and we look forward to continuing to deliver this scheme.”