The Newcastle-under-Lyme BID Ambassadors are continuing to play a key role in the success of our town centre – by talking to hundreds of businesses and visitors every single week.
The two uniformed Ambassadors – Nick and Jade – walk miles every day to patrol the town to help create a safer environment and provide updates for businesses on events and project.
They play a unique role to support businesses in the town by:
- Communicating issues which affect the business on a day-to-day basis and supporting them in resolving issues
- Acting as a welcome presence for visitors to the town and ensuring that they feel safe
- Attend weekly partnership meetings with the council, police, service providers and agencies to equip them in supporting several businesses with crimes such as shoplifting and antisocial behaviour which often end in arrests and warnings issued
- Supporting the delivery of BID projects and events
- Liaising with businesses on the benefits and opportunities which exist through BID projects and activities
Nick explained: “Our role is to essentially look after the BID area of nearly 400 businesses by making it a safe and welcoming place for visitors, support events that are held in the town, and work alongside the police and council to ensure it is as safe as possible.”
A well-recognised face in the town centre, Nick has been a BID Ambassador for over three-and-a-half years now and is very happy in the role.
“I love it,” he said. “Every day is different. One day we could be giving out flyers to businesses for an event, and then another day we could be addressing issues around the rough sitters and sleepers in the town or helping the police to catch a shoplifter. You just never know what’s going to happen.”
Our new Ambassador
Jade is new to the role and is now entering month two of this exciting and challenging position, which she feels very passionate about. She is invested in supporting the town centre and was ‘born and raised’ in Newcastle where she has gained a great knowledge of the area and the community.
It’s quite a change from her previous job as a Wedding Co-ordinator in Greece, Jade has recently relocated back to her hometown, and is really pleased to have gained a role where she can utilise her skills.
She said: “I’m loving it. It’s right up my street! I enjoy the people aspect and with my background in customer service jobs it’s nice to deal with people all day, from all walks of life…”
“…In regard to the public relations aspect, the business aspect, and constantly dealing with colleagues, it’s very similar to my previous jobs. It’s very interesting.”
A key role that the Ambassadors perform is to patrol the town to create a safer environment and liaise with the Council and Police to assist on any issues. Both are trained for such situations they may fall into though, and as added protection they wear bodycams to collect footage.
“We wear radios which are linked with all the businesses who are in a partnership called PABCIS (Partnership Against Business Crime in Staffordshire), as well as the Police and the town centre CCTV cameras so we can all liaise with each other,” explained Nick.
“We also have access to an App on our phones called DISC which enables us to see certain individuals who may be banned from certain shops, so you get to know the faces. We can help to deter any shoplifting or anti-social behaviour by alerting the retailers,” added Jade.
It’s all in a day’s work for Nick and Jade, who remain passionate about making Newcastle the best experience it can possible be.
“Our priority is making sure that the businesses get out of what they put in towards the BID,” said Nick. “It’s about ensuring that they are happy, and that if the businesses have any problems, they can come to us, and we will do our best to help them sort it out.”
They do not attempt to replace the police or any other service which works towards making our town centre a great place to visit, but their presence goes a long way in moving our town from simply a functioning environment to a friendly and welcoming place for everyone to enjoy.
Newcastle-under-Lyme BID Ambassador stats:
- Each Ambassador on average walks 16,000 steps around the town every day
- That’s around 5-6 miles, or 25-30 miles a week
- They speak to an average of 15 businesses every day
- And they talk to dozens of visitors to the town centre, both local and from out of the area
- They use their business crime radio on average 10 times a day which contributes towards arrents and preventing shop lifters
- The ambassadors support the police in making 1 arrest a month
Find the Ambassadors at jade.ambassador@nulbid.co.uk or nick.ambassador@nulbid.co.uk
