The renewal of the city’s ‘Purple Flag’ status cost almost €9,000, with questions raised over its benefit to nighttime safety.
The Purple Flag is described as “an international accreditation awarded to cities and towns that meet a standard of excellence in managing the evening and night-time economy.”
Galway City Council, which calls it a “prestigious” award, applied, and received the purple flag in 2015. Documents released to the Galway City Tribune under Freedom of Information (FOI) confirm the City Council spent almost €9,000 to retain the accreditation in 2017.
This included €2,800 “renewal expense”, which is paid to Association of Town and City Management (ATCM), who award the accreditation.
The award was given to Galway City following an overnight assessment of the city centre by two assessors earlier this summer. It means Galway City, “as a Purple Flag accredited area has proven that it is welcoming to everyone, offers safe ways for visitors to travel home after dark and provides a good mix of venues.”
The local authority “celebrated Purple Flag weekend” in early October.
As well as the €2,800 fee to ATCM, to renew the application, the City Council spent a further €4,000 on “advertising and printing of promotional items”. It is understood this includes the purchase of actual purple flags, one of which was flown from the Spanish Arch.
Other costs associated with the Purple Flag include: trade services and other works (€513.24); entertainment and associated expense (€676.46); training – seminar and conference (€575); and professional fees and expense (€382.75).
The website of the Purple Flag scheme lists “lower crime and anti-social behaviour” among the benefits of attaining accreditation, which is held by 18 other towns and cities in Ireland. However, not everyone is convinced of the merits of the scheme. Fianna Fáil councillor Mike Crowe said the Purple Flag was “all a bit fluffy” and “great in principle” but hasn’t made the city any safer.
“It’s not clear to me what benefit the city gets out of the Purple Flag. I don’t know what it does. I know what they tell us it’s supposed to do; it’s awarded to towns and cities that are safe and vibrant. But I don’t see how by being awarded the Purple Flag Galway City is any safer,” said Cllr Crowe.
“Take the Blue Flag. Ballyloughane doesn’t have a Blue Flag so I know that, according to the authorities, it’s not safe to swim there and if I want to swim I go out to Salthill where the Blue Flag beach is, or I take the risk and swim in Ballyloughane anyway.
“With the Purple Flag, I can’t see one thing that has changed since Galway joined the scheme that has made the city centre any safer. The only thing I know about the Purple Flag scheme is that purple flags have gone up around the city since it was renewed.
“I’m not being funny about it, but the only place I’ve heard the Purple Flag being mentioned is at City Hall. I haven’t heard any clubs or residents or people on the street or any business people mention or talk about the Purple Flag.
“I’ve never gone travelling to a city on the basis of whether or not they have a purple flag and I’ve never heard of any tourists using it as criteria for choosing where they’ll go. And I’ve never heard of businesses using the purple flag to decide if they’ll set-up business in a town or city.
“It’s not a lot of money to be spending in the greater scheme of things, but at the same time that’s €10,000 or so that you could be spending on other areas, such as CCTV that actually might improve safety in the city,” added Cllr Crowe.
A spokesperson for the City Council said the Purple Flag initiative was a positive one, that promotes the night-time economy. The spokesperson said that the initiative has promoted collaboration and cooperation between a number of agencies including Gardaí, City Council, businesses including security companies.
He added that €9,000 spent on the Purple Flag was relatively more cost effective than CCTV.
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