Packed with holidaymakers during the summer, the town of Maplethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast is also a great place to visit for Christmas shopping, and to help locals and those from further afield discover what Maplethorpe has to offer for seasonal shoppers, the town holds a festive market each year.
The Maplethorpe Festive Market takes place on High Street, a long straight road in the commercial heart of the town that runs from the seafront into the main shopping area. The road is closed to vehicles during the event and SAFECROWDS GROUP’s role was to protect pedestrians by installing HVM in five locations to protect pedestrians as they explored the stalls and local shops.
With permanent hostile vehicle mitigation already in place at one end of High Street, our remit was to protect the end of the road closest to the sea front, which needed to remain pedestrian permeable to enable people to access the beach and promenade areas. Additional HVM was required to prevent vehicle access from adjoining roads, but here the brief was to deploy a HVM system that would enable rapid emergency vehicle access should that be needed.
The SAFECROWDS GROUP team visited Maplethorpe to carry out a site survey and recommended the use of the ARX Stopper! HVM system for the pedestrian permeable protection at the beginning of High Street, along with RB50, our moveable HVM barrier, in locations where emergency vehicle access was required. RB50 was an ideal HVM solution to prevent unauthorised vehicle or pedestrianised access, but it can be moved aside by one of our trained technicians in seconds if emergency vehicle access is needed.
Our team were there bright an early to install the HVM in all five locations at 6am, putting the protection in place before the market traders set up their stalls or any members of the public arrived to do their Christmas shopping. With other entertainment, including visits to Santa’s grotto continuing into the evening, the equipment and our team remained in place until 11pm, when we derigged and removed everything, ready for vehicular traffic to return as usual the following day.
Thanks to the professionalism of our team and our smooth delivery of this HVM project, we were invited back to Maplethorpe to protect the town’s Beach Festival the following summer.
