Centre Information
From its opening in 1991 West Orchards has been at the heart of the city centre shopping, offering a wide choice of retail outlets with major high street names as well as independent outlets. With a 650 space car park, over 40 retail outlets and a food court with over 700 seats it is easy to see why the centre is such a success.
Open 7 days a week with extended hours at Christmas, West Orchards is the one stop shopping experience.
Ever wanted to make a comment, a suggestion or complaint but not wanted the hassle of filling out forms? If the answer is yes, TXT ZONE is for you.
West Orchards have introduced TXT ZONE which allows you to send quick messages to our centre control room ensuring that issues are dealt with quickly. Just text WO and the details of the issue to 80010. You can also include the zone number to help us find the problem.
Example: You see someone dropping litter in the car park – text WO and the details to 80010 giving a clear location e.g. WO car park L3 green loads of litter.
TXT ZONE was invented by three local teenagers to tackle anti-social behaviour. The scheme which is being launched in West Orchards could be adopted by 20 shopping centres across the UK.
Students Sophie Wilkinson, Laura McCarthy and Jade Protheroe won the Prudential for Youth Say Yes Project for their idea which allows young people to whistle blow on anti-social behaviour by sending a text.
The Smithford Way complex is owned by Prudential – which also owns the Manchester Arndale and Cribbs Causeway in Bristol – and the company is to closely monitor the scheme which will get underway in mid-July.
Andy Talbot, manager of the West Orchards Shopping Centre, said youngsters could alert security officers by sending a text to 80010, then typing the letters WO followed by details of the problem. Texts will cost the normal rate.
“The centre is to be split into zones which will be labelled and numbered with signs to enable text users to clearly indicate where the problem is,” he said. “The message will arrive about 30 seconds later in our security control room and the controller will then decide who should be despatched. If it is littering it would be a cleaner, if it is somebody spitting it could be a security officer and cleaner and if it is something more serious the duty officer would attend.
“The idea behind TXT ZONE is that if young people see anti-social behaviour they may feel they will not be taken seriously by Centre staff because of their age but this allows them to report anything immediately. The texts will be received by our network and the computer will capture the customer’s telephone number so if there are numerous hoax calls we will be able to deal with it.
“Prudential are going to monitor TXT ZONE closely because they have the option to roll this out in their other shopping centres throughout the UK which is a real possibility since it has great benefits.”
Mr Talbot said the system had been designed by young people for young people but could also be used by adults. “Anybody – young or old – who has access to a mobile phone can report a problem via text,” he added. “There isn’t a major anti-social behaviour problem at West Orchards but we felt it was important to have something in place to deal with anything that happens – and we do now.”
The Prudential for Youth Say Yes Project was run in conjunction with the Government Office of the West Midlands, the Community Safety Partnership, Young Enterprise and Entirely Enterprise.