Bath's night marshals have kept around 40,000 people safe in the city centre since August, according to business bosses.
The Bath Business Improvement District (BID) initiative to make Bath's streets safer at night and ensure late-night revellers get home in one piece has been expanded over the festive period.
The scheme helps around 2,000 people during a typical week, smoothing out taxi issues around Orange Grove and ensuring drunken behaviour does not get out of hand in the city centre.
Records kept by the BID office suggest that early intervention by marshals prevented the police having to be called out to 353 incidents since August. And first aid administered by marshals ensured Great Western Ambulance Service was spared 58 journeys.
The BID estimates that 40,000 people have benefited from the marshals' supervision and work since August.
Over the Christmas holiday, the marshals are working extra shifts, having added Thursdays, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve to their normal Friday and Saturday rotas for a fortnight.
On average there will be four marshals per evening, although on New Year's Eve there will be seven plus a medic.
They are part of the BID-run Nightwatch scheme, which enables licensees, police and CCTV operators, as well as the marshals, to communicate about city security issues by using radios.
Every pub, club or restaurant which signs up to Nightwatch receives digital radio equipment which connects them to the marshals, as well as to police officers and staff monitoring the city's CCTV system.
BID manager Andrew Cooper said: "Throughout the year, the BID night marshals do important work that ensures Bath's night-time economy is able to prosper in a safe environment. Their work helping those who are enjoying a night out in the city is particularly important at this time of the year with thousands of extra people making the most of the holiday period.
"One of our main goals at the Bath Business Improvement District is making the city as attractive a place as possible for people to visit, whether by day or by night.
"The night marshals play a central part in fulfilling that goal."
The scheme costs £40,000 a year to run, and is paid for by the levy operated by the BID on city centre businesses
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