AN AWARD-winning scheme targeting business crime in Liverpool is to be scrapped – as council leaders seek better value elsewhere.

Business Crime Direct has been particularly effective with the night-time economy, bringing in schemes such as Pub Watch, taxi marshals at late-night ranks and the Best Bar None awards to help the city become a safer place.

The initiatives have won recognition from the Home Office and other cities have tried to emulate many of the schemes.

Schemes targeting shoplifters in the city centre have also won praise.

Last night fears were voiced that a decade of hard work will be unravelled.

Traditionally the relationship between bars and nightclubs, doorstaff and the police has been a strained one.

But in Liverpool, representatives from both sides have sat down and ironed out issues since 1999, with a security forum introduced in 2002.

But now that forum, and other award-winning safety schemes, are facing the scrapheap because the Chamber of Commerce’s Business Crime Direct unit is being disbanded.

CitySafe – run by the council, the police, Liverpool Primary Care Trust and others – say they believe they can now get better value for money elsewhere.

Karl Barry, the elected security forum representative, said: "Liverpool is now one of the safest cities in the country at night. That didn’t happen by magic. There has been a lot of co-operation between all sides – private security firms, the chamber of commerce, the police and the security industry.