BOROUGH OF POOLE

EMERGENCY COMMITTEE

5th NOVEMBER 2007

The Meeting commenced at 7pm and finished at 8 pm

Present:

Councillor Ms Atkinson (Chairman)

Councillor Wilkins (Vice-Chairman)

Councillors Allen, Bulteel, Clements, Gillard and Miss Wilson

Members of the public present: 0

E19.07APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

No Apologies for absence were received.

E20.07DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Councillors Bulteel & Allen declared a personal interest in various items as members of the Dorset Fire Authority.

Councillor Allen also declared a personal interest in E26.07 as a Town Centre Retailer and Member of the Poole and District Chamber of Trade..

Councillor Miss Wilson declared a personal interest in various items as a member of the Dorset Police Authority.

E21.07MINUTES

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 10th September 2007 were submitted for approval.

RESOLVED the Minutes of the Meeting of the Emergency Committee held on 10th September 2007 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

RECENT INCIDENTS

The Head of Housing and Community Services submitted a report Highlighting the incidents that had occurred since the last meeting where Poole’s response procedures had been activated. He drew attention to the fire incident at The Co-Op Store, Blanford Road, Hamworthy on 1st September 2007. Two issues had been raised following the incident;

1. The Council were not formally advised by the Emergency Services that an incident was taking place Until there was a need for evacuation.

2. The decision to evacuate residents from the sheltered scheme meant that, had the residents agreed to move, they would have been exposed in the open to a smoke plume with potentially toxic combustion products.

Members expressed concern that the Borough Operations Centre (BOC) only became aware of the incident by monitoring Police radio traffic and there had been confusion whether or not it was appropriate to evacuate nearby properties.

In response to Members concerns that Council had not being made aware of the incident by The Emergency Services, The Emergency Planning Officer explained that although no request for assistance from the Emergency Services had been received, BOC staff nevertheless had advised the duty Emergencies Officer because a sheltered housing scheme (Hinchcliff Close) was in the near vicinity of the fire and that all key staff including Social Services were then notified.

The Head of Housing and Community Services clarified how notification had normally been received. He then explained that Police control at Winfrith had requested support for an evacuation of the area surrounding the Co-Op building. This request was passed onto the duty Emergencies Officer who had commenced co-ordination tasks as per the Incident Response Plan procedures. Due to still conditions the smoke did not dissipate as expected and as such was potentially a toxic situation. In this instance residents would be advised to remain in their homes with all windows and doors closed until the smoke had dispersed.

The Chairman raised concerns over evacuation Protocols and recommended that a clearer understanding of these be provided at the next meeting.

A Member advised the Committee there had also been confusion over the cause of the incident. The Police and the Fire Brigade looked at the evidence differently in terms of whether the fire had been the consequence of a deliberate act. It was suggested that officers could gain an explanation of the two agencies approach via the officers of the Poole safe partnership.?

A Member stated that recently there had been an incident in Poole Town that required the Police to completely close roads. No diversions had been put in place as the BOC had not been notified of the incident.

The Head of Housing and Community Services responded by stating that he would take this up with the Police officers in the Poole Safer Together Partnership Board.

RESOLVED that the Report be noted and a representative of Bournemouth and Poole Resilience Group be invited to the next meeting to report on the conclusions of the BPRG review of the incident.

E23.07EMERGENCY SUPPORT CENTRES

The Head of Housing and Community Services presented a report advising Members of the support contract and proposed accredited training to be provided by the Women’s Royal Voluntary Services (WRVS).

The key elements of the services to be provided by the WRVS under the contract were as follows :

  • Maintain a 24 hour, 7 day, 365 days per year emergency response capability
  • Provide a prompt response to the designated location. The estimated response time would be within 90 minutes
  • Provide sufficient volunteers for the initial response to an emergency and maintain an efficient and necessary response as determined and agreed by the appropriate Authority
  • Ensure the provision of training of volunteers appropriate to the nature of tasks to be undertaken, equipment to be utilised, current legislation and established best practice.
  • In the event of a standby call or callout, make no charge to the Authority save for actual costs incurred in responding to the emergency, for example volunteer travel costs, food purchased for emergency feeding purposes which would be agreed by both parties prior to invoicing.
  • Give priority emergency attendance to the Authority, together with other organisations who were party to similar agreements with the WRVS.
  • Provide a mutually acceptable number of WRVS volunteers for up to 2 one- day exercises to test the Authority’s contingency plans at no additional cost, other than actual costs incurred by WRVS.
  • Hold appropriate and adequate employers liability and public liability policies of insurance with a reputable insurance company to cover the services it was providing under this Agreement.

The WRVS had developed management training for establishing and maintaining emergency support centres. This training has been accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM). The Training Course was tailored to meet the needs of the Authority, primarily Social Services Officers.

Members fully supported the work done by the WRVS and the training which was to be provided.

RESOLVED that the training proposal and renewal of the Support Contract be approved and that future up dates on it’s work be received by this Committee.

E24.07DORSET LOCAL RESILIENCE FORUM

RESOLVED that the Report be deferred to a future meeting.

E25.07PROJECT GRIFFIN

The Head of Housing and Community Services presented a report on the Project GRIFFIN. He explained that Project GRIFFIN had been adapted from the procedures used in the City of London to establish arrangements for the sharing of information between the Police and the business community with regard to terrorism and other major incidents. GRIFFIN had been piloted and was currently being developed within the Bournemouth area.

The primary service currently provided was a GRIFFIN conference call every Friday morning, providing information from the Police Crime Information Unit and updating GRIFFIN subscribers on:

a. Current threats

b. Recent and current crime trends

c.Forthcoming events

Participants were able to ask questions and provide feedback during the conference call.

The Head of Housing and Community Services clarified that there were no costs to businesses. This project was considered to be a positive step towards ‘service sharing’ between Bournemouth and Poole, building on the work done via the joint ARGUS programme and further developing the BPRG’s role.

RESOLVED that the Committee supports the preliminary work to consider the introduction of Project GRIFFIN services to the Poole area and further information be provided at a future meeting.

E26.07BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN

The Head of Financial Services presented a report updating the Committee on current progress on the Business Continuity Plan and the Implementation timetable.

A review of the Council’s existing Business Continuity arrangements had been undertaken by independent advisors, Zurich Municipal. This had resulted in 18 recommendations being made for the Council to consider and develop a strategy. The Council’s Management Team had endorsed the recommendations of the health check and requested that implementation began. Member Training was scheduled for January 2008.

The Chairman felt it was important that all Members of the Emergency Planning Committee attended the training session and it was hoped that progress had been made on the Critical Services Schedule.

AGREED that

(a)the current progress be noted;

(b)Members note the proposed training session scheduled for January 2008; and

(c)six monthly reports be submitted to this Committee until the successful completion of the project.

E27.07COMMUNITY RISK REGISTER

The Head of Housing and Community presented a Confidential Report on the work done to identify and capture risks relating to the conurbation. A copy of the confidential Community Risk Register (CRR) Listing had been submitted for Members to consider.

The on-line Community Risk Register (CRR) database hadbeen developed to be able to capture not only those hazards (and associated risk ratings) for the Poole and Bournemouth conurbation, but also for our partner neighbouring authorities in Dorset and for the wider regional and national hazards that might affect us.

Risks contained within the CRR had been submitted by all Category 1 Agencies.

Each risk had been assigned to one of 16 categories, and had been given a risk rating of either Low, Moderate, High or Very High. The rating being a product of the likelihood of a particular threat or hazard actually occurring, and the impact of the threat or hazard, should it occur. Likelihood and impact scores were assessed and inputted by the risk owner; the database system was then automatically assigned the risk rating . As such the CRR provided a tool for Resilience Groups and others to identify and address risks on a priority basis.

The Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) required the individual Agencies and Resilience Forums to now use the CRR to address risks on a priority basis, which would be an on-going process.

Members and The Strategic Director enquired what was meant by ‘CLOSED’ shown against a number of the hazards/threats. There was a concern over the terminology used and the difficulty in ascertaining the Top Ten risks for Poole.

The Emergency Planning Officer explained that ‘CLOSED’ indicated that the hazard/threat had been assessed and all necessary actions had been taken and were in place but It did not mean the risk had gone away.

The Head of Housing and Community Services stated the CRR Listing was compiled from a Standard Risk Assessment scoring system. ). Further work was required to ensure all risks were up dated.

The Head of Housing and Community Services agreed that information on the Top Ten risks for Poole would be available and undertook to report this to the next meeting.

Members drew attention to the risk of Acetylene Cylinders (which could explode 24/36 hrs after a fire) and asked if the whereabouts of such containers were recorded?

The Emergency Planning Officer stated that there were no warning markings on Cylinders and no controls on the use or whereabouts of Acetylene Cylinders. These Cylinders were widely used both commercially and within domestic homes and as such posed a real problem for the Fire Brigade. After a fire all Cylinders were dosed and monitored for 24hrs and it was necessary to have an evacuation zone of 200-300 metres put in place for 24hrs.

The Chairman felt that this risk should be highlighted in the Business and Poole News. She was concerned that residents were unaware of the risks of handling and storing Acetylene Cylinders. Information on the National System to Risk Assess should be considered at the next meeting.

RESOLVED contents of the Report be noted and a further report to be presented at the next meeting on the Top Ten Risks in Poole and information on The National System of Risk Assessment for use in the Community Risk Register.

CHAIRMAN

1