M
ilton Keynes’ ‘After8 ‘Elf Service’ has been a great success.
The ‘Elf Service began ‘business’ on Thursday 10th December and was set up to help City revellers enjoy the most out of the year’s festivities, an initiative from the After8 Group of the MKCCM (Milton Keynes City Centre Management). The project ran Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 10pm until 4am until 02nd January 2010.
Designed to help visitors to the City with directions and to promote a fun and safe experience within the City Centre after 8pm, the After8 ‘Elf Service provided water, shelter, use of a phone, maps and even medical assistance. With the support from the emergency services, this initiative was a welcome addition to the already busy late night economy of the City, which sees a dramatic increase (around 25%) in visitors leading up to Christmas.
In total 42 volunteers took part in the 11 day project, stationed between the Theatre District and Xscape they took in 30 casualties, sent six people to hospital and even saved the life of a man that had collapsed. In total over 200 people were seen by the project.
Spokesperson for the After8 Group and City Centre Manager, Kay Greenhalgh said: “The response to the service has been positive in every way and a great success. We strongly felt hat this additional service has helped Milton Keynes’ festive period be a safer, friendlier and more enjoyable experience for both locals and visitors.”
The project was financed through SaferMK, NHS Direct and Elliot Hire and also benefited from in-kind contributions from the Theatre District, Xscape, St John’s Ambulance, Oceana, Perception PR, Visual Identity and Icon Graphics.
Some statistics:
- The project successful distributed:
- Over 1,500 free condoms
- 150 bottles of free water
- Assorted maps and information
- 590 taxi journeys per night were recorded with approximately 1,300 passengers per night taken home safely
- Taxi and private hire journeys from the Xscape rank and pod alone over the 11 nights equalled 6,493 with 14,269 passengers being carried.
For more information please contact 01908 398135 or email info@mkccm.org
To view the press coverage for this project see: MKCCM/News/PressReleases
