Street rangers facing the axe in Bury St. Edmunds

[The Patriot]

Street rangers facing the axe in Bury St. Edmunds

01-09-2012 06:06 AM

Published:
Mon, 2012-01-09 14:04


Street rangers facing the axe in Bury St. Edmunds


Heather Joy


Street rangers facing the axe in Bury St. Edmunds

A street ranger service which was considered an important part of the work of a town center improvement group is being cut.
The rangers were brought in to strengthen security and safety in the Bury St. Edmund’s town center and help visitors. Now the town is set to lose them after the board of Bid4Bury decided to terminate the current contract in April according to a report in the East Anglian Daily Times.
“This decision has not been taken lightly and the views and feedback from our members have been taken into consideration in arriving at this decision,” said Mark Cordell, chief executive of Bid4Bury.
“Fundamentally, the board do not think the annual cost of this service, of nearly 100,000 GBP, demonstrates good value for money for our membership and at this very difficult economic time for our businesses, the board feels the expenditure of Bid4Bury can be better directed elsewhere,” Cordell elaborated.
Cordell explained that the decision was not a reflection upon the current rangers who the board believes have done an exceptional job.
According to the report, Ispwich Central has provided the street ranger service in Bury since launch in 2010.
The team of street rangers was one of Bid4Bury’s key pledges and was said to be a further development from the former town warden program which patrolled the streets of Bury St. Edmunds until 2006.
Paul Haynes, manager of the Arc shopping center in Bury told the EADT that the decision to axe the street ranger program “somewhat as a surprise” to him.
“What I would say is, that I and the Arc’s management team have found the rangers do an excellent job,” he said.
Haynes said that he would be collecting feedback from arc tenants to provide to the Bid4Bury board.
A spokeswoman for Ipswich Central spoke of how valuable the street rangers have been in the success of the BID in Ipswich.
“Therefore, given our own experience, we are surprised at the decision reached by the Bid4Bury board to switch off the provision of street rangers. However, their business decision should be respected,” the spokeswoman continued, “Our priority is now the staff affected by this decision who will, understandably, be concerned about future employment and deserve our full support.”








More...