Night Time Borough Champions Network minutes, 5 October 2023

• Chair: Amy Lamé – Night Czar
• Cllr Jake Short – Chair of Licensing Committee – LB Sutton
• Cllr Louise Phelan – Vice Chair of Licensing Committee – LB Sutton
• Cllr Anne Clarke – Cabinet Member for Community Wealth Building – LB Barnet
• Cllr Cafer Munur – Cabinet Member for Growth – LB Bexley
• Cllr Eleanor Stringer - Deputy Leader of Merton and Cabinet Member for Civic Pride
• Cllr Yvonne Bear – Portfolio Holder for Renewal, Recreation & Housing – LB Bromley
• Cllr Jonathan Simpson – Chair of Licensing Committee – LB Camden
• Cllr Mariam Lolavar – Lead for Business and Economic Growth – Royal Borough of Greenwich
• Cllr Susana Fajana Thomas – Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Regulatory Services – LB Hackney
• Cllr Zarar Qayyum – Cabinet Member for Business, Jobs and Skills – LB Hammersmith and Fulham
• Cllr Phil Giesler – Lead Member for Business and Growth – LB Richmond upon Thames
• Cllr Kemi Akinola – Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Voluntary Sector, Business Engagement and Culture – LB Wandsworth
• Cllr Iman Less – Lead Member Night Time and Mental Health Champion – Westminster City Council
• Cllr Louise Brett – Cabinet Member for Decent Living Incomes – LB Ealing
• Cllr Jeet Bains – Cabinet Member for Planning and Regeneration – LB Croydon
• Jonathan Wade – Head of Spatial Planning – Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• Carly Heath – Bristol Night Economy Time Advisor
• Ben Lumley – The Liminal Space
• Paul Broadhurst – GLA 24 Hour London Team
• Mark Inger – GLA 24 Hour London Team
• Julieta Cuneo – GLA 24 Hour London Team
• Tim Spires – GLA 24 Hour London Team
• Satu Streatfield – Publica
• Daniel Blyth – Publica

Amy Lamé welcomed the Night Time Borough Champions to the meeting and provided a brief update on the development of night time strategies across London with ten boroughs actively developing holistic strategies.

The Night Czar also provided a brief update on the Night Time Enterprise Zone programme. The three zones have been busy running evening and night time events and initiatives over recent months.

The three successful Business Friendly Licensing Fund projects were also announced.

• Westminster will use the fund to support innovative night time strategy engagement.
• Hackney will support night time venues to better mitigate noise and nuisance issues through their Hackney Nights portal.
• Merton will use the fund to trial family-friendly evening events in Mitcham town centre.

The learnings from NTEZs and Business Friendly Licensing projects will be shared across boroughs.

The Night Czar introduced the focus of the first half of the meeting – the health and wellbeing of night workers.

With over 1.4 million people regularly working at night in London, providing better, healthier, fairer and safer working conditions for night workers is a central pillar of the GLA’s 24 hour London programme.

The Liminal Space

Ben Lumley from The Liminal Space presented their work on Night Club, an interactive workplace training intervention to support night workers. The programme provides guidance to night workers to help them mitigate the health risks and impacts of night work.

Night Club delivers specialised training with sleep scientists, psychologists and health experts. The Liminal Space has found that night workers suffer from feeling disconnected from their employers and management teams, human resources departments and health and safety officers.

The programme has identified common challenges facing night workers, including irregular shift patterns and rotas, poor lighting in break rooms that prevents adequate rest during shifts, unavailability of basic services at night, lack of access to food and no induction or training for night workers on resources or tips to support their health.

Bristol Nights: Thrive at Night

Carly Heath, Bristol’s Night Time Economy Advisor, presented Bristol’s pioneering work developing free, online, open-source resources for hospitality night workers and managers to promote mental health and wellbeing in the workforce.

41% of the city’s workforce regularly working at night and the city council established Bristol Nights as a partnership to oversee night time campaigns, programmes and harm reduction projects in the city.

Thrive at Night is the latest campaign to focus on the health and wellbeing of night workers. The campaign provides specific guidance for the hospitality sector because of the number of young workers it attracts and the frequent lack of dedicated human resources departments or suitably trained staff.

The campaign includes a handbook to help managers write health and wellbeing policies appropriate for night workers. The ambition is to train compassionate leaders in the hospitality sector to support staff who may be at greater risk of witnessing or responding to serious incidents, or who may experience sexual harassment at work.

The programme includes an introductory, in-person, therapist-led training session and a suite of resources that support managers to think about intersectionality in the workplace, recovering from serious incidents, dealing with burnout, working with freelancers, team-building and collective decision-making. These resources are all downloadable and free to use. There is also a workers’ workbook with tools for night workers to support their health and wellbeing.

Amy Lamé invited councillors to provide updates about night time policies, projects or programmes.

Greenwich

Councillor Lolavar updated on the recent Woolwich Lates events. The programme seeks to build local confidence and position Woolwich as a ‘lates’ destination in the borough. It is being delivered in partnership with local stakeholders and longer-term seeks to harness regeneration projects to help reduce social and economic divisions in the town centre. The focus has been on extending existing events, activities and programmes into the evening and providing family-friendly spaces.

Bromley

Councillor Bear shared the work that Bromley has been doing under the BR1 Lates brand. The programme is delivering three showcase events in Bromley town centre to attract visitors and encourage businesses to stay open later to benefit from increased footfall. Bromley Council has worked closely with partners to deliver the events and they have committed to maintaining the BR1 Lates branding and regular evening events once the programme ends. The programme has also funded permanent new lighting and electricity outlets for future events, festive lighting and market stalls on the high street.

Camden

Councillor Simpson provided an update on Camden’s recent Evening and Night Time Citizens’ Assembly, which looked at the emerging borough-wide evening and night time strategy. The assembly brought together a representative panel of 50 residents, workers and business owners to three workshops. Camden is publishing its Night Time Strategy shortly, which will help to celebrate the borough’s diversity of night time venues and businesses and ensure Camden is a safe place to work at night.

Westminster

Councillor Less provided an overview of the recently announced plans to develop Westminster’s first evening and night time plan. The council launched Westminster After Dark as a consultation exercise to hear from residents. The aim will be to broaden engagement and organise the council’s first Citizens’ Assembly to inform the night time plan to be launched in June 2024.

Richmond

Councillor Giesler updated on the progress of Richmond’s Night Time Strategy. Formal engagement for the strategy was hosted on the Commonplace online platform and ended in September. The council has taken different engagement approaches in different parts of the borough to reach seldom heard voices, such as young people and night workers. They have held workshops tailored to young people and disability groups and are beginning to process and analyse their findings.

Merton

Councillor Stringer shared Merton’s plans to support evening and night time activity in Mitcham, one of the borough’s smaller town centres, through a programme of events. The council is applying for a premises licence to cover the town square to reduce costs for market traders, who would otherwise need to apply for individual licences. They are further supporting businesses by waiving street trading fees and providing pre-application support for licence applicants. The aim is to show businesses the economic viability of trading later and encourage more activity after 6pm.

Sutton

Councillor Short shared progress on the council-led regeneration of Sutton town centre, where a new flexible workspace - Oru - recently opened alongside an independent cinema and new food operators. The council is creating a map of safe places in the town centre and coordinating with the BID to identify and promote safe havens at night. This builds on the licensing committee’s work to make Ask for Angela training a standard licence condition.

Barnet

Councillor Clarke announced the launch of Barnet’s first BID, which will be located in Edgware. The top priority for the council is to ensure that night time considerations inform the three largest regeneration schemes in the borough to make sure new residential neighbourhoods work well at night and do not become islands of inactivity after dark.

Hackney

Councillor Fajana-Thomas announced the new sexual harassment awareness campaign in Hackney called Don’t Cross the Line, which will see posters displayed in public transport hubs across the borough. The council is also consulting on changes to the cumulative impact areas in the borough and providing pre-application support to licence applicants.