Manage our streets
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HOLBA is dedicated to maintaining the streets, ensuring they remain clean, safe, and welcoming for all, elevating the experience for everyone.
To learn more about our services, speak with our Engagement Team by setting up a meeting at hello@holba.london
Emergency contacts
For your reference, keep these numbers saved for future use.
Street Cleansing Team
For any urgent on-street issues between 6am – 9pm contact our Street Cleansing Team on 07920 086324.
My Local Bobby
Contact My Local Bobby on 07432 273388 or 0752 3901505.
Safer Streets
HOLBA ensures the area remains one of the most inclusive and safe places to visit, live, trade,
and work by actively supporting daytime & nighttime safety.
Business Community radio
Ask for a radio to then become part of the Business Community Radio network, which enables members to be informed and updated about disturbances or threats and an online crime reporting system to deter and tackle crime.
ALERT
Become a member of the ALERT system, the crime and anti-social behaviour intelligence sharing platform and database of profiles of people seen in the area committing anti-social behaviour and/or criminal acts.
Security
HOLBA provides on call, rapid assistance 24/7 private security team called My Local Bobby, as well as operate joint patrols and surveillance with the statutory providers. We collate and share crime intelligence with the local authorities, while partnering with them to implement a community policing approach.
Safer Business Network
Safer Business Network is the Business Crime Reduction Partnership for the Heart of London area. HOL members receive access to informative events, briefings and regular staff training on managing crime, welfare and antisocial behaviour.
Security training & support
We work with Safer Business Network to offer free resilience training, including how to respond to unexpected events, counterterrorism, welfare and vulnerability and conflict resolution. We foster partnerships between businesses, property owners, the council and police, with a key focus on prevention, intervention and support.
See our Events page for upcoming training sessions:
ACT
Action on Counter Terrorism is the training programme for businesses, produced by the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO). Provided by Safer Business Network, ACT covers a range of topics such as:
- Spotting suspicious behaviour
- How to report suspicious behaviour anonymously
- How to deal with suspected mail threats
- The current threat level to the UK
See our Events page for upcoming training sessions:
WAVE / Ask Angela training
By training your staff in WAVE and implementing Ask for Angela you can play a role in helping to prevent and reduce sexual violence and vulnerability within the night-time economy. The WAVE Programme consists of two strands of work.
WAVE Training – A training session which aims to increase the skills, knowledge and confidence of those working in licensed premises focusing on identifying vulnerability and making appropriate interventions.
Ask for Angela Scheme – A consumer facing campaign which allows people who feel like they are in an unsafe situation to ask for help using the “Angela” code word, informing a staff member of their need, and allowing them to access discreet help.
Women’s night safety charter
Every woman has the right to feel safe when travelling, working, or going out at night. HOLBA is a signatory to the Mayor of London’s Women’s Night Safety Charter.
Any organisation that operates at night can sign up and support the Women’s Night Safety Charter: Women’s Night Safety Charter | London City Hall
Night Stars Initiative
Night Stars are a team of volunteers who are there for you in your time of need to ensure you get home safely.
Working in partnership with Westminster City Council, Metropolitan Police and supported by Capital Arches Group and Northbank BID, the Night Star volunteers are focused on working with the West End’s evening and night-time economy businesses to promote women’s safety and reduce violence against women and girls. The team will provide wider support to anyone who becomes vulnerable due to intoxication to reduce the risk to their safety or prevent them from becoming victims of crime.
Saving Lives – defibrillator locations points
Click here to view a map of defibrillator location points within the Heart of London area.
Best Bar None
The Best Bar None accreditation scheme promotes the responsible management and operation of all evening and night-time venues, accrediting premises that demonstrate a commitment to raising standards, promoting excellence and, in turn, reducing crime and anti-social behaviour. Created as part of the Westminster Licensing Charter in partnership with Westminster City Council, we rolled out the first Best Bar None scheme in the borough to our members in Leicester Square & Piccadilly Circus District in 2018.
Speak with our Engagement Team about becoming accredited this year: operations@holba.london.
Purple Flag
Our areas of Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus have successfully been awarded Purple Flag accreditation, a recognition of excellence in managing the evening and night-time economy for the periods 2022 and 2024.
The Purple Flag award allows members of the public to quickly identify towns and city centres that offer an entertaining, diverse, safe and enjoyable night out. The accreditation process takes towns and cities through a comprehensive set of standards, management processes and good practice examples, all designed to help transform the evening and night-time economy (ENTE) and provide a research, training and development programme.
Cleaning, waste & recycling
HOLBA’s schemes and initiatives exist to support all members to reduce waste, deliver better air quality and reduce traffic,
whilst contributing towards a zero-carbon economy. For more information, please contact operations@holba.london.
Keeping the West End clean
HOLBA invests in additional daily cleaning and waste management services to maintain clean streets for the benefit of everyone. These are in addition to the basic level of services delivered by the council.
- Provide a 7-day-a-week programme of sanitisation.
- Wash all street bins once a week.
- Remove pavement staining daily as required.
- Hotwash pavements and remove chewing gum daily.
- Remove graffiti within 45 minutes of reporting.
- Carry out daily street audits to identify and report issues ranging from cleaning and maintenance, dockless-bike and pedicab issues and suspicious behaviour, pursuing a response until rectified.
Waste collection
All businesses must ensure their commercial waste is presented for collection at the correct times to coincide with the council’s specified collection times. Check your street here to avoid fines.
From Monday 31 March 2025, changes to how businesses separate their waste will come into effect. As part of the Government’s ‘Simpler Recycling’ scheme, all businesses with more than ten employees will be required to separate food waste, glass, plastic, metal, paper and card from general waste.
Reducing waste & increasing recycling
HOLBA provides all businesses with a free sustainability audit that reviews your business’s carbon and wider environmental impacts across energy use, waste and recycling, carbon reduction, servicing and deliveries and water use, whilst identifying savings that can be possibly made.
A comprehensive report will be provided that will advise on actions to take alongside your roadmap to net zero. Speak with: katie@holba.london.
Learn more about our Net Zero Strategy:
Waste consolidation scheme
Goods vehicles already account for up to 30% of traffic in the West End and commercial traffic is
predicted to increase from 200,000 vehicles to 270,000 a day in the future.
By all West End businesses using the same provider for recycling and waste, the West End can benefit from fewer vehicles and better air quality, too.
Veolia and Westminster City Council’s (WCC) Commercial Waste Services offers HOLBA members
a 10% discount on waste and 20% discount on recycling services. The fleet is predominantly electric and powered by the waste they collect.
For more information, please contact operations@holba.london.
Install a recycling & waste compactor
In previous years, the Heart of London Business Alliance has secured Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funding from Westminster City Council (WCC). If you would like to install a waste compactor on your premises, please contact operations@holba.london.
We are confident that another round of funding will become available so are currently seeking additional sites for future installations. Participation will not cost businesses anything and will contribute to improving air quality, reducing carbon and reducing waste.
The CIL funding allows us to expand the original pilot project we implemented at 30 Panton Street, vastly improving the air quality within London’s West End. More information about the pilot project
can be found here. For more information, please contact info@holba.london.
Use zero-emission delivery services
Many businesses are switching to zero-emission delivery and courier services. These often can be cheaper, faster and better for the environment.
Veolia can provide HOLBA members with a range of electric vehicle charging solutions. Veolia’s intelligent charging technologies will help HOLBA businesses meet their carbon reduction targets and contribute to cleaning the West End’s air.
For more information, please contact operations@holba.london.
Homelessness outreach
HOLBA is committed to engaging with issues surrounding homelessness and believes that as a community we can talk openly about it in an effort to better understand the causes and how to solve the problem.
The Connection at St Martin’s
We partner with homelessness charity The Connection at St Martin’s. The charity helps over 2,000
homeless people every year to move away from, and stay off, the streets of London.
They do this by tackling the underlying causes of rough sleeping as well as offering practical help.
Services include providing tailored employment support and training, volunteering opportunities
and housing advice. They also provide a variety of specialist services to help clients cope with the physical and psychological effects of being homeless, empowering them to develop their strengths and ability to change their own future and recover from homelessness, working with clients, not for them.
If you would like to get involved, please contact operations@holba.london.
Rough sleeper referral
Use the StreetLink system when you see someone sleeping rough. It makes sure the local outreach teams are aware of the person and their location and can send workers out to find them.
For more information, please contact thestreetlink.org.uk.
In an emergency, please always call 999.
Talk to the person if you feel safe to do so. Acknowledging someone who is sleeping rough can reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation. It could be a smile or a wave or, if you feel comfortable, say ‘hello’ and have a conversation. It helps them feel less alone. Let them know that they can visit The Connection at St Martin’s to get help and support.
During freezing conditions or temperatures raising above 30C, a Severe Weather Emergency Protocol or SWEP is activated as an emergency response, designed to protect people sleeping rough when they need it most.