The Bristol City Council team prepares for worst-case scenarios
The Bristol City Council operations centre(Image: Bristol City Council)
A tiny team that prepares for disasters and emergencies in Bristol is being beefed up amid long-running concerns that it could not cope if a catastrophe struck.
The city council employs just three people, splitting shifts around the clock, to plan for terrorist attacks, high-rise blazes, riots, pandemics, evacuations, floods and other calamitous scenarios.
Audit committee members have received reports every three months since summer 2023 saying it is ‘likely’ that the authority’s ability to respond to major emergencies could be overwhelmed.
So the council has now advertised for two new posts to bolster the team.
However, this would only take it back to the five employees it had during a similar report to the committee in November 2022.
Council papers to the economy and skills committee said the risk could lead to ‘disruption of public services, disruption of transport networks, death or injury, and displacement of people’, outcomes that are considered ‘critical’.
Bristol City Council director of management of place Patsy Mellor told the committee: “Bristol is a city of events and a city of protests and we have a very, very small civil contingency team of only three people.
“We have had a growth bid approved as part of the budget-setting, so the advertisements for two further officers are live.
“So that risk should go down once we get those people in and trained because the civil contingency team covers 24/7 – one of those three people are on duty 24 hours a day.
“As you can imagine, it’s very rare that Bristol goes through a week without some sort of event.
“That includes fire, events, everything you can think of.”
Labour group leader Cllr Tom Renhard told the meeting on Monday, June 2: “It’s helpful to hear the update and that a growth bid has been approved.
“That’s really good news for something this committee has raised and asked questions about.”
He asked how long it would be before the new recruits started work.
Ms Mellor replied: “Depending on the emergency planners we recruit, one might have one month’s notice, one might have three.
“I would imagine getting them in and trained on our procedures in probably six months.”
An operations centre in the city centre is staffed 24/7 daily.
The team monitors public spaces and manages traffic, with a central hub for CCTV cameras across the city, and it is also a control centre for major incidents.
At audit committee in November 2022, Labour Cllr Fabian Breckels called the lack of emergency planning staff ‘absolutely terrifying’.
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