Why not check out some of the case studies of various projects we have undertaken on behalf of various clients. They give you a more detailed explanation of what we are capable of and the success that we have had!
Consultancy services on the new Arsenal Emirates Stadium Project
The project involved a wide number of roles. The key areas were transport planning, community engagement and network management.
The Emirates Stadium, often referred to as the Emirates or Ashburton Grove, is a football stadium located in Holloway in the London Borough of Islington and is the current home of Arsenal Football Club.
The stadium opened in July 2006 and has an all seated capacity of 60,432, making it the fifth largest football stadium in the United Kingdom, and the third largest club stadium in the United Kingdom behind Manchester United's Old Trafford and Celtic's Celtic Park in Glasgow.
It is the third largest stadium of any kind in London, after Wembley and Twickenham. It was initially known as Ashburton Grove after the road it was located on, before a naming rights deal with the airline Emirates was struck in October 2004. The project cost £430 million pounds, including the cost of the associated infrastructure.
Key roles of this project summarised below:
Lead consultant for the London Borough of Islington
Working in partnership with MPS in developing the policing operation at the Emirates Stadium and supporting MPS National and EU Policing Strategies.
Design and implementation of the award winning and highly commended road closure zone plan around the stadium. The Met Police have commented that this is one of the best road closures systems around any stadium in Europe.
Analysis and design of crowd management systems in partnership with Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and Arsenals consultants.
Design, introduction and management of the innovative Arsenal match day telephone information hotline in partnership with Virgin Media.
Design and delivery of Environmental Safety Project valued at over £500,000. The projects aimed to reduce the impact of the stadium on the local area / community.
Liaison with general public. Setting up and management of public open days, drop in centers, community meetings, and council meetings to explain and discuss operational plans pre and post stadium opening.
Responsible for setting up and management of the Arsenal FC Liaison Committee, a planning requirement for the stadium which enabled local community groups to discuss the operational plans with Arsenal FC, Islington Council and the transport operates (TfL, LUL, London Buses and London Overground).
Responsible for setting up and managing Emirates Stadium Transport Operations Group (ESTOG). This was the partnership team that was responsible for the review and management of the operational aspects of the transport plan for Emirates Stadium match by match.
Strategic involvement in the design and management of the first two seasons match day monitoring – £500,000 project that monitored all the operational characteristics for the stadium.
The Big Chill is a multimedia event that aims to transform the spirit of our times. The festival is set in the beautiful grounds of Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire.
The 40,000 capacity event has been running for 15 years and moved to its present site in the beautiful Malvern Hills of Herefordshire in 2001.
Since relocating to the rolling Herefordshire hills, the Big Chill has evolved into a kind of giant outdoor art gallery. It has always provided outstanding and world famous headline acts making it one of the UK leading festivals.
Stadium Management has been providing the transport management services for the festival since 2007.
The key responsibilities are the design and operational management of Transport plan for the 40,000 capacity event.
We have introduced a green travel plan that has seen a steady increase in the modal shift by festival goers using greener and cleaner travel modes to get too and from the festival.
Stadium Management accesses the travel requirements of the festival each year and ensures that customers have confidence that all modes of travel have been adequately accommodated for.
All modes of transport are catered for car, coach, shuttle bus, bike, motorbike, train, eurostar and even plane !!
The Green Travel plan has seen an increase in the modal shift for festival goers with the increase use of public transport. This co-insides with the Big Chills environmental policy and both polices combined strive to decrease the use of private car. This resulted in a nomination at the UK festival awards in 2008 for innovation related to the travel plan and the introduction of a Green Tax.
Over the years we have introduced new and strengthened existing rail partnerships for example with First Great Western and London Midland. This has enabled sufficient train capacity to be available for the event.
We have undertaken contractual negotiation and partnership management with National Express coach to secure coach travel from all UK destinations for festival customers. We introduced the first combined festival ticket enabling a seamless operation between travel and entry into the festival.
The introduction of a free shuttle bus system from train station to festival site has seen a vast increase in train travel. Procurement of a new shuttle bus contract with local contractors ensured there was economic benefit to the local area and best value was achieved for the festival owners.
We designed and managed the car park management plan. We cater for around 14,000 cars that travel to site, this includes all on and off site traffic signage. The traffic plan has been commended by West Mercia Police and the Local Authority. The traffic plan is designed to minimises the affect on the local community but ensures that the festival customers have a swift and easy journey too and from the festival.
On show day’s Stadium Management is responsible for all vehicle movement on site. Management of this is within Event Control (ELT) to ensure that the transport plan is implemented, adhered to and the maximum coordinated between internal and external partners is achieved.
The X factor auditions were the first large scale open auditions for the 2007 series of the X factor on ITV. In partnership with the Met police we designed the pedestrian management systems that held 10,000 auditionees outside the stadium.
The X factor selected the Emirates Stadium for the London Auditions in 2007. This saw four days of filming with Simon, Sharon, Louis and Dannii to find the finest unknown talent London and the South East of England had to offer.
Neil Huddart lead on the design of the travel plan and the pedestrian and traffic management system for the event in partnership with Arsenal FC Stadium management team and Met Police for the 10,000 capacity event.
The pedestrian management systems had to be designed with safety and security being paramount but also had to cater for the production teams filming requirements.
Neil lead on the network management for the transport operations with Transport for London and all relevant local authority departments, leading up to the event and on the event day.
In partnership with TalkBack Thames Neil designed the travel information for the event that was used by all hopefully auditioneees that traveled to the event.
"Emirates Stadium is a fantastic venue and it provided us with some brilliant shots for the opening scenes of our fourth series of X-Factor. We had everything we could ask for and the organisation surrounding the event from all staff and contractors at Emirates Stadium allowed our time there to be one that we will remember. The Stadium will definitely be a venue that we would consider for future filming."
Mark Sidaway, Series Producer, X-Factor (TalkBack Thames)
The X factor team returned to Emirates Stadium in 2008 to undertake the open auditions again as a result of the success of 2007.
The consultancy role was to design and manage the delivery of one of the mayors projects (Ken Livingston). The role was to design the delivery and management of a new way-finding project for Transport for London (TfL) called Legible London. Legible London is a new world class pedestrian way finding system that aims to help people to navigate their way around London.
The projects aspirations are to encourage a travel modal shift and encourage people living, working and visiting London to walk instead of using public transport or the private car. The aim of the project is to provide congestion relief on the London transport network. The pilot projects goal after design, implementation, and review is to delivery a pedestrian way finding system that will be used for the Olympics in 2012. The London 2012 Olympics is aiming for 100 per cent of spectators to travel to the Games by public transport, or by walking or cycling.
The Legible London project is being piloted in three areas which are spread across five key London boroughs. This presented a number of challenges as all boroughs have their own criteria and requirements related to their individual transport and pedestrian policies.
The consultancy role was as the Delivery Manager for the project managing the three pilot projects across the five London boroughs. Design and implementation of a delivery framework that had three main criteria that the project had to be delivered on time, to budget and must be of a very high world class quality.
The contract required review and design of staffing structure for the TfL team and co-ordination and management of a project team consisting of TfL staff and external consultants of around 40.
Expert skills were required in relationship management, risk management/analysis, business and finance planning. Public sector procurement processes including OJEU (Official Journal of the European Community).
Responsibilities included financial management of pilot expenditure including producing spending forecasts, clearing invoices for payment and preparing purchase orders. Responsible for managing a budget of around £3 million pounds.
This included management of pilot evaluation, modal integration, local consultation and communications, collaboration and co-ordination with other work streams within TfL.
The Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concerts were the first concerts at Emirates Stadium in May 2008.
Under the planning permission for the stadium Arsenal FC are permitted to have three other special events per year.
We worked in partnership with Arsenal consultants to refine the travel plan to cater for a music event at Emirates. We worked in partnership with the Met Police to refine the Traffic Management operations for a music event rather than the regular football event that the team had been used to. The event was a 48,000 capacity event that was subject to an 80/20 modal split target which required 80 % of spectators to travel by public transport to the event (planning permission requirement).
Network management of the operational plan was required to refine the travel plan and traffic management arrangements with all partners to ensure a safe event.
Design of communication information for local community and spectators to the event which ensured that the operation of the event was as smooth and successful as predicted.
In 2009 Capital FM summertime ball event was held at the stadium which used the same travel plan as the 2008 Bruce Springsteen event. This confirmed Emirates Stadium as leading concert venue within London.
In April 2009 Neil Huddart was awarded a Metropolitan police (MPS) BOCU Commendation Award – (Borough Operational Command Unit)
For working in partnership with MPS in developing the policing operation at the Emirates Stadium and supporting MPS National and EU Policing Strategies.