A NEW campaign aimed at keeping revellers safe has already been quietly operating in one Bolton bar.

The Venue Bar has been running the Ask for Angela scheme for about 10 months after one of the bar’s owners saw it while on a course in Lincolnshire.

Ask for Angela is a new scheme being rolled out in licensed premises across Bolton in a bid to make nights out safer.

The idea being someone who is feeling threatened or vulnerable can ask any member of staff about Angela and staff will immediately know this person is looking for help.

David Holmes, of The Venue Bar in Churchgate, said he had already seen it work.

“There have been a couple of situations. A woman came up to the bar and asked for Angela.

“She was on a date and it wasn’t the sort of date she was looking or hoping for. He was coming on a little bit too strong.

“We took her through to a back room. We went out to him and we told him she had gone and his date was over.

“He hung around for 10 or 15 minutes, before he left.

“She had been frightened by him, he hadn’t done anything, but it didn’t seem right.

“After he had gone, we got her a taxi.”

Ask for Angela is being rolled out in the town centre and PC Andy Vernon, GMP’s divisional licensing officer, hopes all bars and pubs will pick it up.

Bolton is the first Greater Manchester to try the scheme, which started in Lincolnshire and has been recently launched in Barnsley.

PC Vernon explained one of the reasons for starting it in Bolton is the good relationship which has been built up between the bars and police through Best Bar None.

Posters will be put in bars around the town centre. and the force is working with the University of Bolton to spread the word among students.

PC Vernon said: “It’s all about improving standards, the situation and how we operate.”

Anna Gough, general manager at Yates’ Bolton and chairwoman of Best Bar None, said: “We need to bring it to people’s attention, there’s no cost to it, it’s just another sort of service that we can offer to make it safer in town.”