Late night venues urged to sign up to online portal offering Covid advice and safety training

As businesses begin to reopen following the third national lockdown, Hackney’s late night venues are being guided towards a new online hub that gives them access to the latest Covid guidance and safety training.

The council’s Hackney Nights portal is being touted as the place to be for any place-to-be that wants to furnish staff with the most up-to-date information and reopen as safely as possible.

Along with key alerts from the council and police, the portal will provide training courses on a range of night-time issues, including women’s safety, alcohol and drug misuse, hate crime, and more.

The council will soon launch a Hackney Nights accreditation scheme to give recognition to venues that meet the highest safety standards. The accreditation will be reviewed annually.

This is all being funded by the late night levy paid by local venues with the aim of creating a safer night-time economy.

Samantha Mathys, the Town Hall’s late night levy manager, said: “I am incredibly proud of Hackney’s late night venues and businesses, who have worked tirelessly with council and police officers to ensure that their premises are Covid-19 secure. 

“Our online portal will continue to build on Hackney’s collaborative response to supporting a safe and well-managed night time economy at this challenging time and support our local night time economy in the long-term, by bringing together the council, police, licensees and other key partners on one centralised, sustainable platform.”

The portal is the latest initiative launched under the Hackney Nights banner. Others have included arranging for stronger police presence in trouble spots, and public awareness campaigns such as Reframe the Night, which tackled the damaging culture of victim-blaming around sexual harassment.

Mathys added: “I would encourage all licensees to sign up to the portal to help us rebuild a stronger, more connected and safer night-time economy for staff, customers and local communities.”

If you’re a local licensee, you can sign-up to the portal by visiting hackneynights.co.uk/signup