What is Purple Flag?

Purple Flag is an ATCM accreditation scheme that recognises excellence in the management of town and city centres at night. Entertainment areas that achieve the standard will be those that offer a better night out to visitors. Purple Flag aims to raise standards and improve the quality of our towns and cities at night.

Ipswich works hard to ensure you have a great night out and is officially the only town in Suffolk allowed to fly the Purple Flag.

Just as a Blue Flag is an indicator of a good beach, Purple Flag is set to be the indicator of where to go for a good night out.

More Information

The benefits of Purple Flag status are:

• a raised profile and an improved public image;
• increased visitors;
• increased expenditure;
• lower crime and anti-social behaviour;
• a more successful mixed-use economy.

The five fundamental themes for Purple Flag are:

• Wellbeing
  A clean, safe and inviting environment.
• Movement
  Providing a secure pattern of arrival, circulation and departure.
• Place
  A stimulating destination and a vital place.
• Appeal
  Providing a vibrant choice and rich mix.
• Policy
  Policies, strategies and partnerships to underpin keeping people safe

Ipswich was first awarded Purple Flag status in July 2012. An Ipswich day-to-nighttime economy partnership has been formed to look at taking forward a proactive and comprehensive programme of work to further enhance the offer of Ipswich's evening economy.

Keeping people safe

The initiatives that run in Ipswich to keep people safe are:

• Police Safer Neighbourhood Team
• Street Rangers – the eyes and ears of the town centre
• RadioLink – links businesses with CCTV, Police, Street Rangers
• Taxi Marshals – helps late-night visitors get into appropriately licenced vehicles
• Taxi licencing and enforcement
• Licencing of bars, clubs and other premises
• Town Pastors
• ‘Ask Angela’
• BarWatch