Tall Ships - a successful event
16 Aug 2009
Police have thanked all those who attended this week's hugely successful Tall Ships event which attracted over half a million visitors to the main event location in Belfast Docks. The event was the largest ever held in Northern Ireland.
Over the four days police made only three arrests for disorderly behaviour and received very few reports of any other crimes.
Assistant Chief Constable Dave Jones who was in charge of the police operation, was delighted at the success of the event.
"On the whole we are extremely pleased at the public's co-operation over the four days. Motorists, although at times delayed on the roads, were largely heeding our advice. Only one car was impounded over the four days and the traffic management systems worked effectively. We acknowledge at times there was heavy congestion on some roads but I think the public will appreciate that with any major public event, traffic disruption is inevitable.
I would like to thank visitors and motorists who attended the event for their patience during what was a very busy policing operation. Our main aim was to ensure the safety of members of the public, event participants, visitors and those working at the event and I am happy we have achieved that. In addition we worked hard to minimise disruption to local communities and vehicular traffic.
ACC Jones concluded: " An event of this size can only be delivered through effective and thorough partnership working and the Tall Ships event has proved that Northern Ireland can host the very biggest event successfully and safely.
I want to put on record my thanks to all the partners who delivered this event and who made it such a success."
