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How the council prepares for emergencies

Our plan is divided into specific parts. These are:

  1. Incident management process
  2. Call out procedures
  3. Integrated Emergency Management Information
  4. District Emergency Centre information
  5. Specific emergency plans

Copies of this document are widely distributed and held by all council departments. It is updated twice a year to ensure currency.

What is Walsall Council's role?

Should the situation prove to be beyond the capacity of the Borough to deal with it alone, or should the emergency spread across more than one district boundary then the Borough will work closely with those other Boroughs affected and co-ordinate the overall action.

Site specific incident

Applies to major industrial sites, such as the Gas Holder facility at James’ Bridge at Darlaston. Here the worst case can be quantified and the response pre-determined. This will not normally require the District Emergency Centre to be activated. The local authority response will be co-ordinated from a Police Silver Control. Specific plans are written for these events.

Plans within this category will include industrial COMAH sites, and town centre evacuation.

Foreseen incidents

A number of potentially hazardous events can be foreseen and planned for accordingly. These include heavy flooding in some areas of Walsall, a major chemical spill on the M6 or another motorway incident. The District Emergency Centre would almost certainly be utilised to coordinate activity and assess the costs that would arise from the response. Again, separate plans are written to cover each of these possibilities.

Unforeseen incidents

The extent that possible disasters, natural or man created, could affect Walsall is limited only by the imagination. Radioactive debris falling to earth from a satellite, freak weather conditions, acts of terrorism or accidents involving transport carrying highly hazardous substances, the list is endless.

Plans in this category include severe weather.

Emergency response

Experience has shown that the ability to work effectively means that various elements need to be brought together in a team. This applies equally to all of the organisations, whether they are dealing with the operational, environmental, procurement or administrative functions.

The district emergency centre

The District Emergency Centre is configured to make provision for a response to any of the potential emergency situations that we have seen can happen. It provides for a venue where of all the involved departmental staff and other organisations can work in close proximity to each other to mitigate the worst effects of the disaster. The number of organisations and people in the centre will depend upon the nature and the scope of the emergency. These would be grouped into teams such as management, technical requirements, procurement, environmental, public information and media. Additionally there would be loggers, telephone operators, recorders, guides and caterers.

The centre also provides the physical requirements. Communications, white boards, maps, charts and stationery are ready for immediate use. Exercises are held frequently to test these systems, validate the plans and improve the arrangements.

Why do we need to be so organised?

The possibility of a major disaster happening somewhere in Walsall at some time cannot be ignored. We live in a highly technological and consumer-driven society which demands much from industry. Raw material extraction, manufacturing processes, transportation of dangerous substances around the world by land, sea and air and the, apparently, changing weather patterns make it essential that should the unthinkable actually happen the council, at least, has a starting point for a response. It would certainly be remiss of us if we failed to put these basic arrangements in place.

The rapid and effective response to an emergency could well save lives and property as well as helping to protect the environment in which we live.

What about our normal work?

The normal day-to-day work concerning those who are not affected by an emergency would carry on. Should the emergency last for days, weeks or even months then the turnover of staff in the District Emergency Centre would be high. Much could be asked of council personnel but, in such circumstances, there is every reason to believe that everyone would wish to be involved and be prepared to undertake new duties and tasks to bring aid to those caught up in the disaster.

Contact us

Emergency planning unit
Telephone 01922 652026
Email emergencyplanningunit@walsall.gov.uk