Belfast, Stoke and Lincoln star at AABC awards

There were 32 entries for the AABC Partnership Excellence Awards, announced at the Action Against Business Crime annual conference at East Midland Conference Centre in Nottingham last week.

Presented by Lord Geoffrey Dear, chairman of AABC, Bolton, Stoke-on-Trent and Lincoln were winners of the three Partnership Excellence Awards, while Peter Jones of Business Crime Direct, Liverpool, Julie Davies of Stoke-on-Trent Business Crime Initiative and Alan Dann of Kent Police received awards for Outstanding Achievement.

The Partnership Excellence Award for Promoting Community Safety went to Belfast Citysafe, with Basingstoke Business Against Crime and the Mansfield Safer Business Partnership cited as 'Highly Commended'. The Partnership Excellence Award for Managing the Evening Economy was given to Stoke-on-Trent Business Crime Initiative, with Workington Safe and Sound and Maidstone's Maidsafe highly commended. Lincoln Business Involvement Group won the award for Partnership Innovation, while Harrow Business Against Crime and Leicester CityWatch were highly commended.

The AABC Outstanding Achievement Award for the Northern region went to Liverpool's Peter Jones for his continuing support of AABC and the 20 crime alert schemes he has set up over the years. In the Midlands region Julie Davis of Stoke-on-Trent was recognised for her outstanding commitment to business partnerships over the last 20 years. And in the South, Alan Dann of Kent Police received the third of the three regional awards for his work to develop BCRPs throughout Kent where the entire county, including rural areas, is now covered by a network of schemes.

The NBIS Awards went to Bolton Business BCRP for overall best performance, while the most promising newcomer was Blackpool Business Improvement District