PLANS are afoot to bid for a national award to promote York city centre as a safe and enjoyable place for a night out.

Liberal Democrat councillors are proposing that an application should be made for ‘Purple Flag’ status for the city centre.

Purple Flag is an accreditation process for town and city centres, similar to Green Flag for parks and Blue Flag for beaches.

The award is given to places that meet set standards of excellence in managing the evening and night time economy.

Liberal Democrat councillors will propose a motion at a City of York Council meeting later this month.

Cllr Ashley Mason, Liberal Democrat councillor for Dringhouses and Woodthorpe who will propose the motion, said: “Purple Flag could offer a great way of recognising everything that is successful about York city centre.

“At the same time, we know we need to push for improvements for residents and visitors. The York BID has already been doing fantastic work with partners to make visible improvements to the city centre and to give local businesses a voice.

“The Purple Flag scheme gives us the opportunity to build on that further and get national recognition for the city centre.”

The Purple Flag accreditation process measures indicators such as:

• The standard of public utilities, including street lighting and cleanliness

• The prevalence of harmful and hazardous drinkers and figures on night time-related accidents and injuries

• The safety and affordability of public transport.

Cllr Mason’s motion asks council officers to make contact with York Business Improvement District (BID), Make It York, and North Yorkshire Police to start exploring a Purple Flag application.

Cllr Keith Aspden, Liberal Democrat executive member for economic development, added: “It’s about recognising what we have and how successful the city centre is. But there also needs to be improvements and this gives us a way of looking at that and working with partners to achieve this.”

York BID, a business-led partnership which aims to deliver improvements to the centre of York, supports the proposal.

Andrew Lowson, executive director of York BID, said: “A safe night time economy is a key mandate for the York BID, so any scheme designed to support businesses trading throughout the evening/ night is welcome.

“Purple Flag can help a city benchmark itself against others, but more importantly it shows a commitment amongst partners to continually improve.”