Dundee’s Safe Zone Bus is hitting the streets again after scooping a silver prize at the UK Bus Awards.
The project was shortlisted with the city’s main bus operator, Xplore Dundee, in the ‘Bus and the Community’ category, which recognizes industry-leading examples of partnership community work.
Dundee Safe Zone is a multi-agency partnership with Xplore Dundee, Police Scotland, the Scottish Ambulance Service, Dundee City Alcohol and Drug Partnership, Dundee Community Safety Team, Cair Scotland, the British Red Cross and Dundee Street Chaplains.
The yellow single-decker provides a safe and welcoming place in Dundee city center at the weekends for anyone who needs help of any kind, and is manned by volunteers and experts in health and social care. Since its launch in June 2015, the bus helped more than 700 people who visited for a wide variety of reasons, including those under the influence of alcohol or drugs, young people who’d lost their friends, clubbers who had no money to get home or people simply needing advice or someone to talk to.
After a few weeks off the road, the bus was back in the city center over the weekend (9 and 10 December) and will be into the New Year, with breaks over the Christmas and New Year weekends.
Eric Knox, director of Tayside Council on Alcohol, which operates the Safe Zone Bus said, "Safe Zone Bus could not operate as effectively and as regularly as it does without the support of Xplore Dundee. The company's involvement has been crucial to our success this year and has literally helped to keep the bus on the road and serving the city center community.
"I am extremely grateful to Xplore for helping us to get the bus back on the streets again, and it’s a real boost to know that the success of our partnership has been recognized by the bus industry.”
