BOROUGH OF POOLE

EMERGENCY COMMITTEE

27 NOVEMBER 2008

The Meeting commenced at 7pm and finished at 8:50 pm

Members Present:

Councillor Wilkins –(Chairman)

Councillor Gillard – (Vice Chairman)

Councillors Adams, Bulteel, Clements and Miss Wilson.

Officers Present:

Graham Chaplin, Emergency Planning Officer, Housing and Community Services

Paul Smith, Business Continuity Project Administrator, Financial Services

Kate Gibbings, Democratic Support Officer, Legal and Democratic Services

Members of the public present: 0

E12.08APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Allen.

E13.08DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Councillors Bulteel declared a personal interest in various agenda items a member of the Dorset Fire Authority.

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

E14.08MINUTES

RESOLVED the Minutes of the Meeting of the Emergency Committee held on 29 September 2008, having been previously circulated, be taken as read and be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

E15.08CHANGES TO THE LOCAL RESILIANCE FORUM

The Emergency Planning Officer presented the Report and advised the Committee that the Dorset Local Resilience Forum (DLRF) had not been effectively in its Business Processes and it was necessary to make changes to its Structure and Processes. The main reasons for this were highlighted as follows:

  • Senior executive level officers from the Category 1 responders did not attend the Policy Group Meetings.
  • It had become a reporting and discussing forum.
  • Issues groups were had not delivered expected outcomes.
  • Administration issues had led to agendas, minutes and reports being provided on an ad-hoc basis.
  • The needs of the conurbation were not met within the DLRF Structure.

A review group was formed to produce a draft set of proposal for change to the DLRF Business Plan. The main changes proposed were as follows:

  • The reformation of the ‘Local Resilience Forum’ (LRF) membership consists of Chief Executive and Strategic Director Officers from the Category 1 Responding Agencies and the Voluntary Agencies. The basis for the Proposal was that these Officers would form a Strategic Co-Ordination (GOLD) Group if a Dorset-wide incident or event were to occur.
  • The Establishment of a ‘Process and Risk Review Group’ to consist of emergency planning and civil contingency leads from the three Councils, Dorset Fire and Rescue, Dorset Police, Coastguard and South West Ambulance Services, to develop a business plan and establish ‘capabilities’ and ‘task and finish’ groups.
  • Joint funding of a permanent, full time LRF coordinator/secretariat support post to co-ordinate meetings, agendas, minutes etc. and to support the Performance Review Group and the Capabilities Groups.

(It was noted that due to funding issues from the various agencies this Post was filled by Dorset Police; Chief Inspector Glen Chalk).

The Draft Proposals were considered at the Executive (Gold) Meeting on 8 May 2008, unfortunately an agreement was not reached because some agencies and Bournemouth Borough Council required more time to review and consider these Proposals. Following further discussions and meetings the Draft Business Plan was amended as follows:

  • The Forum is renamed as the “Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole Local Resilience Forum”.
  • Priorities of 1. Corporate (i.e. Borough of Poole), 2. Community (i.e. the Conurbation), and 3. Pan-Dorset has been incorporated.
  • There is no separate Local Resilience Forum budget and any funding for LRF activities will be met by each agency subject to their own financial controls and procedures.
  • The current Bournemouth and Poole Resilience Group (BPRG) will become an operational ‘Responder Group’ to support the new Conurbation Police Division. A similar group will be established for the Police Division covering the Dorset County Council (DCC) area.
  • The chair of the Process and Review Group shall be a member of the GOLD Group.

(It was noted that Peter Pawlowski, Strategic Director, Borough Of Poole had agreed to take on this role and was keen to ensure project management was implemented).

The Committee were given a copy of the Executive Summary from the amended LRF Business Plan and a copied plan of the Resilience Structure, which showed the ‘Capabilities’ Groups.

Members expressed a number of concerns:

  1. that the Forum had renamed itself as the ‘Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole Local Resilience Forum’. As it involved authorities such as the Dorset Police and Dorset Fire and Rescue Service. It should have remained as the ‘Dorset Local Resilience Forum’.
  2. The Resilience Structure was elaborate and too complicated.
  3. Had other Local Government Resilience Forums been examined prior to the Changes being considered?
  4. Were all Councillors and relevant Resilience Forum Teams aware of the Changes, and had they up to date paper hard copies should there be no access to power?

In response the Emergency Planning Officer advised the Committee that all relevant information could be found on the Dorset Local Resilience Forum website. The Website was updated regularly and these needing hard copies to print them off as and when necessary.

RECOMMENDED that,

  1. the Report be noted,
  2. hard copies of the Emergency Process and contact numbers be made available to all Councillors and relevant Resilience Forum Teams and
  3. that the Local Resilience Forum should remain known as the ‘Dorset Local Resilience Forum’.

E16.08BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING

The Business Continuity Project Administrator advised the Committee that the Business Continuity Planning Implementation remained on schedule. On 22 October 2008 a management plan workshop was carried out and a draft management plan was being developed following the Workshop. The Management Plan would process the Council’s Corporate Response to a business continuity event and oversee the individual business continuity plans.

An update copy of the Business Continuity Action Plan was presented to the Committee, which highlighted the activities to be undertaken for the coming quarter as follows:

  • December 2008:

Complete the Management Plan and

Complete the individual business continuity plans.

  • January 2009:

Arrange for plans to be published

  • January/February 2009:

To provide awareness training for staff.

In response to Members questions the Business Continuity Project Administrator advised the Committee that the Project did not extend to advise community businesses. The detailed plans weresolely for the Council’s use and were felt by the consultants to be developing along robust lines, although available recovery actions were always dependent upon the Authority’s appetite for risk.

The Emergency Planning Officer explained that businesses were offered advice and information via the Bournemouth and Poole Resilience Group’s Website, but Emergency Planning were not able to undertake businesses’ continuity plans. Work was being carried out by the Communications Manager to ensure businesses knew how to access the Information.

In response to a Member’s question, as to dealing with flooding issues, which he deemed a top priority and the time scales set, the Business Continuity Project Administrator advised the Committee that Civil Emergency aspects to flooding fell into the remit of the Incident Response Plan. In regard to the 2 years time frame for the Project this was what he had inherited when he took on the role in August 2007. There had been a lot of work carried out which had been presented to the Committee outlining the good and bad practices that had previously been done and the work still to be actioned. A further update report would be brought to the Committee in six months time.

RESOLVED that, the Business Continuity Project progress report be noted and a further update be presented prior its completion date in July 2009.

E17.08SUMMARY OF RECENT INCIDENTS

The Emergency Planning Officer advised the Committee that there had only been one incident since its last meeting. The Incident occurred on Friday 31 October 2008 at a private residential address, in Farwell Road, Alderney.

Dorset Police advised the Borough Operations Centre (BOC) of the Incident at approx 23:00 hours. At the time two unidentified cylinders had been observed in the garage, which could have contained acetylene, and as such would require an evacuation of surrounding properties. The BOC alerted the Duty Emergencies Officer accordingly and an initial 200m-evacuation zone was identified and 100 properties (approx 150 – 200 people) around the site were evacuated.

The Community Centre at Bedford Road South was used as the initial emergency support centre for evacuees. Social Services attended the Centre and assessed its suitability as an emergency support centre. In the meantime Ashdown Leisure Centre, a designated support centre was also put on standby. Most residents had moved to the Community Centre but some residents were refusing to leave their homes. The Poole and Bournemouth Primary Care Trust (PCT) were alerted and road closures were in place.

By 23:59 Dorset Fire and Rescue re-assessed the Risk, only one small cylinder was known to contain acetylene and the Dorset Fire and Rescue Service considered the garage construction to be strong enough to contain any explosion. At 01:00 the Evacuation Zone was reduced to 60m.and the Emergency Committee Chairman was alerted of the Incident, who in turn contacted the Ward Councillors. The fire was nearly extinguished and some evacuees were able to return home and others advised to remain with friends and family until the area was declared safe, the total number of evacuees had reduced to approximately 40 people.

At 02:00 Ashdown Leisure Centre was stood down as Social services had confirmed the Community Centre’s facilities were suitable. Those in the Centre had been advised that the estimated time for stand down would be approx 07:00 – 08:00. One evacuee confirmed that they were taking morphine but declined the offer of admission to Poole Hospital and the others did not want to move from the centre. So a request was made for blankets, pillows and hot food. The request for blankets and pillows were passed to PCT (as Social Services no longer held these items) and the items were sourced from Royal Bournemouth Hospital. Attempts to use a pre-arranged account with Poole Radio Cabs to transport the blankets had not been successful and were eventually delivered by PCT at 03:00. The Social Services representative had been advised of the support contract with WRVS and contact information was supplied. However this Service was not used as food was found to be available within the Centre.

The scene was declared safe at 08:50 and at this time the residents vacated the community centre. At 09:06 the cordon was lifted and road closures and barriers were removed.

Post-Incident points provided to the Committee were discussed and the main areas of concern highlighted by Emergency Planning were as follows:

  • Designated Rest Centre’s - there was no answer from some of the out of hour’s numbers provided and attempts to put Rossmoor Leisure Centre on standby were unsuccessful. In Sports and Leisure Management (SLM) Ltd’s. Agreement there was no requirement for contacts to respond 24/7 and there was a need to consider revising its contract for emergency responses.
  • Minor Emergency Transport Provision – an account with Poole Radio Cabs was designed to meet the need for minor incidents, and Wilts and Dorset to provide for very large-scale incidents. Poole Radio Cabs had advertised as 24 hours/365 days a year, unfortunately when put to the test there was no answer to the 24hour contact number in the early hours. It may be necessary that Transportation Services consider alternative emergency minor transport provision.
  • Role of Duty Emergency Officer - not understood by all Services. The Role is one of co-ordination only. Briefing and awareness training on unit’s roles and responsibilities to all relevant units needed.
  • Provision of blankets, pillows and linens - a function of the Social Services’ response to an incident. Whilst Social Services decided to discontinue holding such bedding items they were provided funding for ‘space’ blankets for such incidents, were these purchased? If so why were they not used?
  • WRVS – support contract available, which was not used by Social Services, could have supplied a support team as well as hot drinks etc to the Community Centre. The cost of the food sourced at the Centre was unknown. Reminder to Social Services needed to advise of WRVS support contract
  • Rest Centre Training - Emergency Planning had offered to fund training to Social Services Managers during the last financial year, but was not taken up. The accredited Training was available via the WRVS, for those who were called to set up emergency support centres. Social Services must review its training needs and re-consider the WRVS training scheme and meet costs.
  • Use of a community centres rather than designated rest centres - The identification and provision of safe havens were being considered in conjunction with the Police as part of the on-going development of emergency response.
  • Cylinder Awareness Campaign - Consideration should be given to a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of acetylene cylinders in homes. Advice and support of Dorset Fire and Rescue Services (DFRS), and Environmental Consumer protection Services (ECPS) would be needed. This item would be raised at the next BPRG meeting and consideration be given to a Borough cylinder amnesty scheme in partnership with DFRS.
  • Tenancy agreement changes – Need to seek advice and support of Housing and Community Services and Poole Housing Partnership Ltd. to consider prohibiting the use of acetylene cylinders on the Council’s Housing Stock, as part of the Tenancy Agreements.

Members who were at the site advised the Committee that the main reasons why residents had not wanted to leave the Community Centre was because the bar was open. They felt the Designated Rest Centre should have been used and provision of blankets and hot drinks etc. been provided there and not at the Community Centre, this had only encouraged them to stay. It was also noted that the representative from Social Services was a female loner worker, who was not aware of the services that could be provided by WRVS etc. Concern was also raised about her well being, particularly as alcohol was available. Ward Members had also not been advised of when the Incident had been stood down.

In response to Members questions the Emergency Planning Officer advised the Committee that acetylene cylinders were more dangerous than butane or propane gas cylinders because unlike others, acetylene cylinders could also explode 24/36 hours after a fire, once the heat had been removed. Emergency Officers needed to co-ordinate from their location at the time incidents were raised, whether that was from their homes or within the office. Communication could be lost if they moved from their location to the incident site, which could cause delays in the co-ordination process.

Members raised a number of concerns; the main issues discussed were the following:

  • Acetylene cylinder - awareness needs to be done nationally as well as locally and if possible the registration of purchases, so locality of cylinders and quantities were known.
  • Designated Rest Centre – access needs to be addressed and evacuees should have been sent to the Designated Rest Centre as soon as it was operational. To have continued to provide support at a community centre where alcohol was being served was not appropriate.
  • Blankets – Social Services should have these available and that Space Blankets would not keep people warm over a long period of time.
  • Transportation – Taxi firm not reliable, must find alternative modes of transport that could provide a service 24hours a day including public holidays.
  • Member involvement – Ward Members should have been updated throughout the Incident and advised when it was stood down.
  • Training – incidents needed to be taken seriously and there was a need for additional training and mock incidents to iron out the issues raised.

The Emergency Planning Officer advised the Committee that no plans were ever perfect and that the Emergency Planning teams needed to learn from its mistakes. Training was necessary, especially from Social Services Team and knowledge of the various services available such as WRVS. All post incident points were being assessed.

RESOLVED that, the Incident Report be noted and approve the Post Incident Actions.

CHAIRMAN

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