Royal Greenwich Tall Ships Regatta
Event/Service Type Goes Here
- Client
- Service Used
- Work Started
- Location
- Royal Borough of Greenwich
- Stewards and Security
- Early 2014
- Greenwich
Following a recommendation from an existing client in early 2014, Wise Security Services was given the chance to pitch to support an event being overseen by the Royal Borough of Greenwich (RBG).
The event was very successful and so began a great working relationship with the senior management team of RBG.
We were able to supply the anticipated 400–500 staff, as well as an experienced management infrastructure to oversee the Royal Greenwich Tall Ships Regatta which was spread over the 50 acres of riverside where safety and security support was required.
By doing this, we were put onto a shortlist to be further considered by RBG. The successful company would have to meet exacting and demanding criteria and a short while later it was announced that Wise Security Services had been awarded the entire contract for all sites including build up, breakdown and the event’s overnight manned guarding requirements.
Following this announcement, we attended regular Safety Advisory Group (SAG) meetings and became a valid contributor to the final stewarding and security plan put into place by RBG.
A number of site visits with senior management of the company followed to identify locations and responsibilities for the main control room staff, the site managers, the site control management teams, the senior supervisors, the section supervisors and all of the traffic management marshals, safety stewards and security staff.
During the latter part of August 2014, we began assigning manned guarding staff to protect the equipment and structures spread over the many acres of site space in readiness for the 50 craft scheduled to arrive for the Royal Greenwich Tall Ships Regatta on Saturday 6 September.
It was anticipated that in the region of one million visitors, crew and staff would attend over the four-day event, which ran between 6 and 9 September.
As one would expect on an event stretched over such a vast area with the number of visitors that attended, there were challenges the Wise team had to overcome.
The vast knowledge and experience of our water and waterside safety manager proved invaluable and enabled us to ensure all staff received specialist training and the ‘on-water’ incidents were dealt with quickly and efficiently.
This event concluded with no major incidents or safety issues reported and the many hundreds of thousands of visitors who attended the various sites enjoyed a water spectacle the likes of which had not been witnessed for a quarter of a century.
The event finished each evening with a firework spectacular viewed by thousands from many vantage points around Greenwich and the surrounding locations. One of the highlights of the four days was the march by hundreds of crew members from Greenwich Park along the two-mile route to the Naval college.
The hugely successful involvement of Wise Security Services lead to us providing the staffing and management for the Tall Ships event in 2015 and also agree a long-term contract that will see Wise working on these events with the Royal Borough of Greenwich for some years to come.
