With a population of 435,500, Liverpool is the sixth largest city in the United Kingdom. Within the City of Liverpool property portfolio are many historic buildings, including the Town Hall and St George’s Hall, which are of great architectural interest, as well as housing many high value works of art including portraits, statues and silverware. In addition to numerous Council meetings and public events, these premises also play host to concerts, recitals, weddings, conferences, dinners and guided tours.
Our involvement
Since 2003, we have provided full static security, concierge and front of house reception duties across the Liverpool City Council portfolio. Working with the Citywatch Team, Carlisle Security manages and delivers static guarding across the city to more than 20 diverse locations, including libraries, Palm House in Sefton Park, Croxteth Country Park, Greenhills plant nursery, two civil works depots, various cemeteries and crematoria.
We provide 70 uniformed Officers to undertake manned guarding, concierge and front of house, mobile patrols, key holding, lock up and lock down services, CCTV and control room training, patrols, emergency response, safety stewards, market security, taxi rank support officers and ISPS officers for their Liverpool Cruise Terminal. During our tenure, we have introduced many innovations across the contract, such as:
Social Inclusion
We have delivered many successful social inclusion projects to encourage engagement with the local organisation JET (Jobs Education Training) to socially include inhabitants from areas of high unemployment. This has allowed potential candidates to be up- skilled, removing the barrier to entry to the security industry. This approach to partnership working and joint working initiatives has also allowed the secondment of a Carlisle Team Manager to work alongside council personnel for skill sharing and experience pooling.
Security Management Secondment
We have provided a number of secondees to the council at various levels to encourage cross fertilisation of ideas between the private sector and public sector. One of our management secondees worked as a Neighbourhood Manager for 12 months engaging with council stakeholders to address their needs.
Joint Training and Cross Skilling
We also conducted joint training sessions with council staff to pass on best practice to public sector workforces to make sure we stand side-by-side in competence and conjoined thinking, the latest of which being our Safer Cities Seminars, whereby we hosted a series of lectures to brief staff on counter terrorism and preparedness issues such as Prevent agenda (part of the governments Contest strategy).
Lisa McBrien received a Superstar Award for her professionalism within the City Watch Control Room. Lisa was on shift during the recent fire that engulfed the Liverpool Waterfront car park at King’s Dock on New Year’s Eve 2017. Despite the Control Room being inundated with calls, Lisa dealt with all enquiries from Council Officers, Police and emergency services efficiently and professionally, which enabled the Council to effectively deal with this major incident.
Specific Buildings
The Town Hall
The building is very impressive as you approach and does not disappoint when you step inside. The decor and installations are stunning, from the wood panelled entrance hall, the display cabinets of silverware, through to the Council chambers and up the main staircase to the state rooms. On duty throughout the day, our Officers provide access control, greeting and assisting visitors on their arrival. Rooms may be booked for corporate events, family celebrations, training events or gala dinners. Tours of the building are also available. Officers may assist with corporate events or licensed celebrations, with a flexibility that may require them to help set up rooms, man the cloakroom or politely manage heated situations before they escalate. The Council still convenes within the Town Hall which is open to the public. Under instruction, Officers may be required to encourage members of the public to leave or call the Police to assist if they refuse to do so.
Liverpool Cruise Terminal
Carlisle are proud to provide event and customer support services to the vibrant and world class Liverpool Cruise Terminal. Our local management team deploy up to 30 officers per sailing at the cruise terminal that has hosted events such as the Three Queens festival where the QE1, QE2 and QE3 sailed into the port bringing with it 1.2m tourists to the region. Officers maintain 24/7 security and the teams are enhanced to provide the extra resources required for events with high attendance. Customer service is of paramount importance in order to continue to attract visitors and the revenue they provide. However, this also needs to be balanced with vigilance and authority in order to ensure the City’s assets are maintained preserved.
St George’s Hall
Following a £23m refurbishment, St George’s Hall is open to the public and widely regarded as one of the finest neo-classical buildings in the world. It hosts exhibitions, talks, tours, corporate events and weddings and The Great Hall can accommodate up to 800 people, or 600 diners. The Heritage Centre is open 365 days per year and receives large numbers of visitors.