This interview was included in our programme against Leeds United

Welcome to the second of our in-depth Trust Interviews. This time up, we speak to Barney McGhee, LTFC’s vastly experienced Safety Officer, about his role at Kenilworth Road – and at Power Court too, as preparations for our new home gain pace.

Thanks for joining us Barney. Can you start please by telling us something about yourself, and what the role of Safety Officer involves?

I’ve always been a football fan, and first got involved in stewarding and safety in 1999 as an agency steward at places like QPR, Millwall, Leyton Orient, Brentford and Twickenham. I gained my qualifications at Brentford and became part of the senior crowd safety management team at Wembley where I was a Level Manager of the players and pitch area. Eventually Brentford offered me a job as Deputy Safety Officer, put me through my Level 4 qualifications and I became full time Safety Officer, at both Griffin Park and the new ground. I did a total of 22 years at Brentford, then moved to a job nearer home with the Jockey Club at Newmarket, where I gained my NEBOSH Health & Safety Qualifications and then a move back to football here at Luton. I’ve been here for around 2 years now, and I love it. I have a wide-ranging role where I am basically responsible for the safety and security of everyone in and around the stadium – all staff, visitors, contractors, guests and of course fans. I’m also involved in planning for the future at Power Court, which is really exciting.

How have crowds and challenges changed over the time you've been in football security?

If you look at the challenges, in my early years the focus was hooliganism. That has changed – it’s not completely gone away, but if it happens it’s mostly away from grounds now - so ordinary fans can attend games safely. There is still antisocial behaviour fuelled by drink and recreational drugs, however: a combination which seems to bring out the worst in some people. In recent years, we have also had to deal with a major new challenge – counter-terrorism. You won’t see it, but clubs and the police do enormous amounts of work at every ground to minimise the potential of attacks.

We’ve had changes in the way people attend football, firstly all seated grounds and now safe standing for instance. We want to ensure that everyone can have a great match experience, sing and enjoy themselves and generally have a good day out supporting their team, home and away. But do it safely and considerately. We have to apply some rules, imposed by the football authorities as part of the safety certificate upon which we operate, but our approach is always to be friendly, fair and firm when required.

We don’t want to tell people what to do, but, for example, we do have to keep aisles and stairwells clear. That’s not killjoy stuff, it’s about making sure our ground is safe and legal. Our licence depends on that. We’re monitored at nearly every game by various Safety inspectors and observers, so we appeal to fans to just be sensible. We try and tolerate a little bit, as long as they're not impacting anybody else. Our fans are pretty good, but some fan bases come with a track record of non-compliance: luckily through our pre match planning and risk assessment we know who they are, as clubs, police and the FSOA – Football Safety Officers Association - share a huge amount of information. There’s a vast resource of knowledge about fan behaviour and patterns which all clubs tap into

Some people say that football is becoming a bit sanitised. What are your thoughts on that?

I've not been here long, but one of the things I love about Luton is that it's such a passionate club. There's lots of noise. We all want that. And we don’t want to ever stop the songs, they’re part of our unique identity. But everybody knows, I think, what's acceptable and what's unacceptable, anything of a racist, homophobic, misogynistic or offensive nature. We're not talking about football chants. We're not talking about the odd bit of banter. We're talking about the offensive stuff. We had some fairly hefty fines for that previously, it may be just a few people, but it causes real problems if it happens, and we really hope it won’t again. So, if you do hear anything offensive please report it to a steward or use the My Concern QR code you’ll find on most seats and dotted around the stadium - report it and we will take action if we can. Mostly our crowd self-polices and that’s great – we don't have a big number of arrests and bans orrefusals, ejections in home areas compared to other clubs, that's for sure. Ours is good crowd.

How is the Kenilworth Road experience changing?

Obviously with its age and nature the ground is a challenge, but we’re all constantly looking for ways we can make the experience better. For example, we know it gets very congested on the Kenilworth Road end concourse, so on match days when Sky etc aren’t there we’ve opened up a extra concourseon the ‘apron’ outside to create more space pre match and at half time. We try and put on all sorts of activities on the apron, too, to create a mini fan zone – music, kids activities and so on. We’ve implemented a new customer flow system for the bar under the David Preece Stand, too, that’s been really successful I’m told – that was a bit chaotic before, now it’s sorted (well nearly!). The Oak Road home area has brand new sets of toilets, we’ve also put in little bars in the Bobbers…we’re making the most of every nook and cranny in the ground. That comes from regular planning meetings and discussions with Gary Sweet, James Mooney the Operations Director, Cristiano, Head of Catering, Lisa and Michelle the fan engagement team and our Commercial team - we speak all the time about what we can do around the stadium and what and how can we improve, how can we make things slightly better. How can we better serve people at the concessions? How do we make turnstile queueing quicker or shorter? We’re always looking to improve, from big changes to little tweaks that make things work more effectively and efficiently.

You were at Brentford when they moved to their new ground – how does that compare to preparations for Power Court?

At Brentford, the new ground design was pretty much done without input from the safety team. It was a separate design part of the club that got planning permission and so on. But withLuton it’s very different. I've been brought into the design stage very early on and was asked to help make what's known as a security needs assessment and a threat, vulnerability and risk assessment. They're quite technical terms, but they're very important for how we see the stadium running. We also look at meeting stakeholder requirements such as planning what the counter-terrorism experts would want us to put in place and what the police call ‘design out crime standards’ that we’ll consider putting in and around the stadium. That goes right down into such minutia as how much space you have in a doorway, for example, ensuring it's not too deep and people can't hide in it. Small details maybe, but important. I've been involved in what lighting we’ll need, CCTV coverage internally and externally because there's retail and car parking areas….where the stewards rooms will be, the medical rooms, police room, emergency evacuation routes and contingency planning and so on. I've also been looking at zoning for accreditation, so who can go where? This will dictate how far your accreditation gets you? Kenilworth Road doesn't really have this at the same level because it's unique in its design, and you can't get everywhere anyway, even if you wanted to! Although many try!

Then there are considerations like hostile vehicle mitigation. What we don't want at Power Court is to have huge bollards all over the place that just look like an eyesore. Mitigation measures are being considered such as planters that look quite attractive, and bike racks if we want people to cycle in and around during the week. If you crash into one, you won't go very far.Gary’s brought me in very early to be part it all which I'm massively pleased about. By getting the operational teams involved at design stage, we’ll avoid the sort of organisational problems that Brentford experienced after their new ground was built – here, it’s all being planned, in detail, in advance.

I love Power Court and its design. It captures some of the things that make Kenilworth Road unique. Like at KR, for instance, we will have four stands that are all different. And we have 4 corner areas that overlook the pitch a bit like the David Preece Stand does; and an offset tunnel. We're bringing a bit of Kenilworth Road with us - as much as we can - in a bigger, bolder modern environment. So I'm quite excited about that, to be honest!

Sounds fantastic. To conclude, what’s your message to the fans?

Everyone here is invested in making this club better. 2020 are investors literally as well as emotionally - everybody wants what's best for the club. The safety and security team are no different. We all want events to go smoothly, and with as much noise as possible in the stadium. Fantastic. As long as you do so safely, considerately, enjoy yourselves supporting the team 100%, get behind the club and hopefully it’s onwards and upwards together - because we all want Luton Town to do well and be successful. We’re All Luton!!

Barney shared lots more fascinating insights, but sadly space prevents us from including them all. So here are some quick-fire responses to often-asked questions: we covered the need for bag searches (security), the need for Beech Path and Oak Road closures (policing), ensuring that people sat in the right areas (to avoid overcrowding) and much more. So, a big big thank you to Barney…now let’s heed his words and make as much noise as we can today.