On the 11th of October the Business Against Crime in Leeds held their 2023 awards for security and the St Johns and Merrion Centre Shopping Centres were honoured with a joint award for their services to security.
The St Johns Shopping Centre holds various restaurants like a McDonald’s, Subway and Taco Bell, as well as shops like Poundland and hmv.
Steve Burns, the soft service manager of the shopping centre said, ‘In order to secure the win for the 2nd consecutive year we exceeded all of the requirements – we hosted over 50% of the BACIL weekly meetings on site; we interacted regularly with the local police – pulling together reports and evidence to support in the arrest of known offenders resulting in banning orders from Leeds City Centre, ultimately making for a safer shopping environment.’
Mr Burns said that there was over 350 incidents reported over the past year:
‘We uploaded over 350 reported incidents that occurred in and around St Johns Centre over the past year and we are always there to help and support our fellow BACIL members to identify and/or help with detaining known offenders.’
‘This on-going commitment combined with the fact that we have a stable team that has changed little in recent years, who all very focused on making our customers experience when visiting the centre, a happy and enjoyable one, and our tenants feel safe in their working environment.’
Speaking on behalf of the security team, he said, ‘It means so much, the whole team were absolutely delighted to be winners for the second year running, well deserved recognition for another year’s hard work paying off – such a great feeling for them all!’
The head of the BACIL, Sean Walker, told Leeds Living, ‘The last year has been a particular challenge for these teams against a backdrop of rising business costs and cost of living increases. Even with these challenges, this year’s BACIL AWARDS 2023 nominees have demonstrated exemplary partnership work and information sharing via the BACIL radio and web network.’
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