Vertical Markets

Royal shopping visits

by msecadm4921

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Princesshay in Exeter and the Glades in Bromley shopping centres during May, as part of their Diamond Jubilee tour, after months of planning by retail guarding contractor Europa.

 

 

Ahead of the visit to Princesshay, every member of the Europa team was assessed by the Metropolitan Police before risk assessments. A safety advisory group of police, fire service, ambulance service, the city centre manager, county council managers and the Lord Lieutenant’s office was assembled to work alongside the security firm so that eventualities were accounted for in advance.

 

Working with the Metropolitan Police, Europa did multiple assessments of the centre to plan for all scenarios and eventualities, using knowledge acquired from working at the centre to cover all potential escape routes. Upon the arrival of the Queen armed police took on a lower profile leaving security operations in the hands of Europa’s 14 employees who were all positioned within the secure inner cordon.

 

Andrew Littlejohns, Princesshay Operations Manager, said: “The months of meticulous planning and liaising with other agencies including the Police Royal Close Protection Squad and Devon & Cornwall Police Service really paid off and the whole event ran as smoothly as it possibly could which was a credit to Europa and their team.”

 

At Glades, planning for the event began four months before the event as not only were the royal party and 600 schoolchildren attending but up to 300,000 people were expected to descend on the centre in one day! So the celebration would be as safe as possible, Europa worked with Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) colleagues, special police units and Bromley council on a security operation. Planned leave was cancelled for all Europa colleagues, 12 hour shifts assigned and briefings carried out almost daily to reinforce that every person from each department had a key role to play at precise moments throughout the event.

 

Bill Squires, Managing Director of the Europa Retail sector, said: “It was a tremendous honour for us to assist with hosting such high-profile visits in one month and the key role played by Europa colleagues in partnership with our clients, the emergency services and specialist units was a real endorsement of our teams. Each visit was a genuine celebration and we were delighted to see the hard work and meticulous planning pay off with two fantastic events.”  Europa is a privately owned, leading property and infrastructure support services business, operating across the UK.  It employs over 3,000 staff and has a turnover approaching £140m.    Europa delivers building and facilities management services in four markets – corporate, public, retail and infrastructure. 

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