200 venues in anti-terror training after hospital bomb
EVENT PART OF COMMITMENT TO MARTYN’S LAW
MORE than 200 city centre venues have taken part in counter-terror training as part of their commitment to ‘Martyn’s Law.’
With the opening of the Christmas Markets and many people organising seasonal social events for the first time in two years, Manchester city centre is busier than ever.
After taking a brutal hit during the pandemic, it represents a welcome boost for the hospitality industry.
But last weekend’s bomb attack in Liverpool and the raising of the terror threat level to ‘severe’ were reminders that vigilance is key.
On Tuesday, staff from hundreds of venues across Manchester city centre attended a free counter-terror training session at the Frog and Bucket.
Figen Murray, the mother of 29-yearold Martyn Hett who died in the arena bombing, also spoke at the event to outline its importance.
“I am really glad that the threat level has been moved to severe which means that the police and counter-terrorism are on full alert, everybody should be a bit more vigilant,” she said.
“Whilst I’m telling you my side of things, there were 21 other families of people who died that day.”
“And multiply that with all the other attacks and that’s a phenomenal amount of families who are affected when things go wrong.
“So you are all doing this training to make sure things go right.
“It’s important because you are also individuals as well – every single one of us should do this training, I have done it. Every single one of us has to take responsibility for our own safety and well-being.”
Figen has spent much of the last few years campaigning for changes in legislation to require venues to have tighter security.
The government has yet to sign off ‘Martyn’s Law’ but Manchester council has pushed ahead and made its core principles a condition of licensing in the city.
City centre Superintendent Zac Fraser also addressed licensees ahead of the training and said: “We’re really keen to work with yourselves, your staff and your teams so that you know how to report into GMP, how to report suspicious behaviour and what that means. You are my static community, you are the eyes and ears.
“The information you put through won’t ruin lives but it might save lives.”
Bar owner John Hamilton told the M.E.N.: “I think it’s really important within our industry to support our staff and make them aware of things are happening in and around us and this training opens the eyes for our staff.
“I think up until the arena bombing staff didn’t really know what was going on, and now you can see the impact of how to make people feel safe.
“It is a scary thing but this is the world we live in, the more support we can give to our staff and to our customers the safer venues are.
“It’s everybody from the person collecting glasses to the person managing the venue, everyone plays a role. It’s the world we live in, look at Liverpool this week, it was down to that taxi driver thinking ‘something’s not right here’ and he’s saved a lot more lives, it’s all about awareness.”
David Perkin, chair of Manchester’s Pub and Club Network added: “We want people to come here, come to the city centre and have a great night out knowing that somebody’s got an eye on what’s going on.”