PAPER C

FIRE AND PUBLIC SAFETY SELECT COMMITTEE - 19 APRIL 2004

LIVEX 2004 – STATUS REPORT ON THE LOCAL AUTHORITY’S PREPAREDNESS

REPORT OF THE CHIEF FIRE OFFICER

REASON FOR SELECT COMMITTEE CONSIDERATION

The purpose of this report is to update the Committee on progress by the Emergency Planning team in preparations for the major incident exercise to be held on the Isle of Wight in October 2004.

ACTION REQUIRED BY THE SELECT COMMITTEE

To note the progress made so far.

BACKGROUND

Exercise LIVEX is a major live strategic exercise led by the Police, which is to be held on the Island on 13^th and 14th October 2004. It is a multi-agency exercise, involving two local authorities, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and many other agencies and voluntary organisations.

Realtime action will concentrate on a decontamination scenario at the IW College, involving the Emergency Services, Environment Agency and Council with and a number of College students acting as casualties and uninjured bystanders.

The exercise will be run over two days with day one concentrating on the strategic (Gold) command at Netley run by the Police, to which the Chief Executive Officer will send a Director and support team comprising of the Director, a staff officer, PA, runner, media officer and for the purposes of this scenario, an Environmental Health Officer.

This phase will concentrate on the Emergency Services’ response with reinforcements from the mainland, and assistance and care of the community by the local authority.

The Control Room at County Hall (Committee Room 1) will run in tandem, chaired by the Chief Executive Officer and support team, with liaison officers from the various agencies involved represented. All Committee Rooms will be utilised over the two days for various functions, to form a Control Suite, which will include a room for briefing Members during the exercise. Volunteer staff, for such roles as administrators, security etc have been briefed and training is planned over the next few weeks. The Council’s media team is involved and will be setting up a media centre within County Hall.

Towards the end of day one, the strategic chair will be handed over to the Chief Executive Officer, on the Island, for the local authority to take control. On day 2, work will concentrate on restoration to normality, health issues, clean up etc.

RELEVANT PLANS, POLICIES, STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

The Emergency Planning Department has been leading on the organisation of the Council’s response and the planning process is well under way. The lead Group consisting of all organisations and agencies holds a planning meeting on a monthly basis and a number of smaller sub-groups have been set up on the Island to oversee specific aspects, ie control room management, control room infrastructure, media, welfare, volunteers.

The following plans will form the Authority’s approach and, following the exercise, the Emergency Planning team will be in a position to review these plans in the light of the results.

IW Council Major Activation Plan

IW Multi-Agency CBRN Plan

IW Council Rest Centre Plan

IW Council Welfare Support Plan

CONSULTATION PROCESS

The following agencies and organisations are actively involved in the planning, organisation and resourcing issues that are required to stage an exercise of this magnitude:

Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service,

Hampshire Police,

Isle of Wight Ambulance,

HM Coastguard,

St Mary’s Hospital,

Hampshire & IW Strategic Health Authority,

Primary Care Trust, HM Prisons

Parkhurst & Camp Hill,

Environment Agency,

Southern Water,

Chemical Incident Rresponse Service,

Voluntary Agencies,

Local Authority services

FINANCIAL, LEGAL, CRIME AND DISORDER IMPLICATIONS

There is a budget, administered by the Hampshire Constabulary, for major incident exercises towards which the Isle of Wight Emergency Planning departments funds £1000 annually. The budget funds payment for an exercise writer to assist in scenario and report production, pseudo media players and some incidental expenses. All other costs lie where they fall, e.g. staffing costs, transport etc.

The Emergency Planning Operations Centre is too small to operate successfully in an incident/exercise such as this therefore Committee Room 1 has been identified as the alternative location, but the infrastructure in place needs upgrading to meet the demands of a Control Room situation, ie extra telephony, power sockets.

Consultation has taken place with representatives from IT and Property Services and they are looking at the best way of upgrading the room, and will provide a range of costings for consideration. It is expected that this will be in the region of £10,000 which will be met from existing budgets.

APPENDICES ATTACHED

None

BACKGROUND PAPERS USED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS REPORT

None

Contact Point : Jeanette Ring, Emergency Planning Officer, Ext 3318, [email protected]

RICHARD HARDS

Chief Fire Officer