Town wins Purple Flag

The town has retained its Purple Flag status - which recognises excellence in the management of town centres at night - for another year.

A team of experts has rubber stamped the award after judging the success of improvements carried out in the town centre.

The Association of Town and City Management’s (ATCM) Purple Flag Accreditation Panel, found the town centre is going from strength to strength.

Mansfield Business Improvement District (BID) Manager, Sara Nelson said: “Everyone who has been involved in the work to achieve Purple Flag is absolutely delighted.

“The hard work has paid off.

“Over the past two years Mansfield has taken huge steps forwards in shaking off its outdated reputation for being somewhere to avoid in the evening.

“Purple Flag has helped with this and will continue to do so.”

The Purple Flag steering group will meet in the near future to discuss a celebration of the achievement for the town.

Shanaaz Carroll, CEO of the ATCM, said: “There are now almost 70 towns and cities across the UK and Ireland who are proudly flying the Purple Flag after working hard to gain accreditation.

“The award is not just about safety, but also the vibrancy and diversity of the evening and night-time offer — this can only be achieved by people working together and across the country we are seeing some amazing examples of this type of partnership working.”

In its 2016 application, the Purple Flag steering group highlighted the opening of new restaurants and bars, increases in the number of people enjoying the night time economy, being granted £10,000 by Heritage Lottery to investigate future uses for the Town Mill and reaching the finals of a national award for community safety projects among other things. Work to help keep people safe and informed on a night out, including employing street marshals, signage about the Public Spaces Protection Order and gating have all benefited from police funding.