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‘You live that way!’ Revellers’ late-night help
Travel board goes up in bid to end chaos
LATE-night party-goers will be helped home from the West End as part of a new safety campaign.
A giant screen will be erected in Leicester Square with live travel updates and bus information, under the Westminster Safer Night Programme.
The move, which has been criticised as an example of our “nanny state” culture, follows a series of measures put in place over Christmas to help people get home safely.
Councillor Daniel Astaire said: “We want to remind people how they can get home to make sure they end the night safe and well, not collapsed in a heap in a gutter, which is uncomfortable, unpleasant and not what we want to see in Westminster.”
Leicester Square will be used as the focal point, with extra police and council street teams patrolling the area.
Residents living near the square say the screen confirms their worst fears about the area.
Colin Bennett, chairman of the Leicester Square Association, said: “It sums up the sad state of affairs we are in as a society.
“It’s sad that people don’t know which way to turn 3am. It’s all part of our boozed-up culture and the place the square has in that. The screen does seem a bit nanny state and a rather expensive way of dealing with it.”
The push to use public transport follows a blockade by black cab drivers in Trafalgar Square to protest against another initiative by the council to help people into minicabs. The scheme lets people book a private minicab from the information booth in Leicester Square and be escorted to the waiting cars.
The black taxi drivers have complained that the scheme is robbing their trade. |
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