Agenda item

(a)       That the Committee thanks the Chief Executive and the Regional Service Manager for the presentation and is assured by the update;

(b)       That the Committee shall receive future reports on the preparedness of the Council to plan for emergencies and specific follow up reports to any major local or regional emergency events to which the Council has had to respond or exercises which have taken place; and

(c)        That a pack, comprising such material as the community risk register, suitable redacted versions of the COMAH plans and the exercise schedule for sites, be circulated to Members in due course.  

The Chief Executive introduced Mr. Neil Culff, the new Regional Service Manager, to the Committee.  He explained that information would be provided on what the service does for Flintshire and an update would also be given on the three Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations (COMAH) sites in the county.  

                        The remit of this Committee included a role on the requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act and the Chief Executive explained that reports had previously been considered by the Committee on regional emergency planning.  The service, which had covered Flintshire and Denbighshire Councils was the only region in Wales to have a fully integrated service.  Flintshire was the lead authority and the Project Board included representatives from each of the six North Wales constituent authorities. 

                        The Regional Service Manager explained about his background before taking on this role.  On the issue of the Civil Contingencies Act, he reminded Members that the responsibility for ensuring compliance with the Act lay with each individual local authority.       

                        The Regional Service Manager provided a detailed presentation which covered the following areas:-

·         Purpose of presentation

·         Overview

·         Service Overview

·         Current work within Flintshire

·         Future activity

·         Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations, 2015

·         COMAH – detail

·         COMAH plans

The Chief Executive commented on the internal structure referred to in the presentation and explained that tasks were allocated based on the required skills and knowledge in each area.  Councillor David Roney referred to the Warwick Chemicals site in Mostyn and commented on a high powered gas pipeline through Rhewl, which he had been unaware of until recently.  He commented on regular meetings held with Mold Councillors about the Synthite site and asked where Local Members fitted into the structure.  The Chief Executive advised that the structure shown in the presentation was for the internal Corporate Emergency Management Team.  He added that if Councillor Roney had concerns about assurance of security issues at the Warwick site, this could be raised with the relevant people to ensure that meetings such as those with Local Members near other COMAH sites could take place.  

In response to a further query from Councillor Roney about training, the Chief Executive commented on the different types of training that was carried out such as scenario planning and said that Member briefings which had been held in the past could be reconsidered; he added that a debrief on training exercises could also be provided for Members.  He spoke of reassurance and community engagement which he said was always a priority. 

            Councillor Peter Curtis commented on the importance of testing and Councillor Arnold Woolley sought clarification on the protection of utilities, particularly water supplies.  The Regional Service Manager said that Welsh Water had robust arrangements in place if the water supply became contaminated and the Local Authorities were in a position to provide support in the delivery of such supplies.  He went on to explain that statutory agencies were classed as Category 1 responders and services such as utilities were Category 2 responders and he commented on the multi-agency arrangements that were in place.  In response to a query from Councillor Woolley on the issue of communication, the Regional Service Manager said that it was the duly of Welsh Water to provide water to homes with the Council providing support where needed but the issue of communication was the responsibility of the service provider.  The Chief Executive advised that following a training event or major incident, a detailed evaluation was undertaken to learn from any mistakes and to share good practices.  

            Councillor Paul Cunningham expressed his thanks for the work of the Emergency Planning Team and said that he had every confidence in what they did.  Councillor Woolley sought clarification on whether enough information was available on the vulnerable and disabled residents in a community in the event of an incident.  In response, the Chief Executive said that communication was always a challenge but progress had been made and added that even though training events were well planned, there were always lessons to be learned. 

            In response to a question from Councillor Haydn Bateman about the bomb scare that took place at County Hall earlier in the year, the Chief Executive said that the Council had reacted well to the event but advised that there were areas that could be improved on. 

            Following a query from the Chairman, the Regional Service Manager spoke of the importance of sharing public information before, during and after an event and spoke of the ongoing work with the Corporate Communications Team.  He also referred to a Community Risk Register for North Wales and commented on other workstreams which were being worked on such as Business Continuity, Resilience Direct and revisiting the Rest Centre plan.  The Regional Service Manager commented on the Exercise Centurion Shield event that had taken place in Buckley which had provided vital information on the identify of local vulnerable people in the area which could ensure that a targeted plan was put in place if such an incident occurred.  The Chief Executive said that it had been an invaluable exercise to highlight local knowledge of those in the community who were vulnerable which would allow the appropriate support network to be put in place if required.  

            On the issue of COMAH sites in the County, the Regional Service Manager advised that there were three sites in Mostyn, Mold and Sandycroft, all of which were upper tier sites.  The Chief Executive explained that the Euticals site had been a COMAH site in the clean-up stage but no longer had this designation.  The Regional Service Manager said that a multi-agency plan and exercise schedule was in place; the Chief Executive suggested that these documents could be shared with Members but added that these would be redacted versions of the plans.  Councillor Woolley welcomed the plans in place for each of the COMAH sites but sought clarification on areas that were ‘down-wind’ of these sites that could be affected in the event of an emergency.  The Regional Service Manager explained that advice would be sought and the issue dealt with depending on the information that was available and spoke of the good working relationships in place with the COMAH operators and Competent Authority. 

            Councillor Brian Lloyd commented on the quarterly meeting held with the Managing Director of the Synthite Limited site in Mold.  Councillor Roney said that he would contact the Management Team at Warwick Chemicals about setting up similar meetings. 

            On behalf of Councillor Richard Jones who had been unable to attend this meeting, the Member Engagement Manger asked how contact numbers were kept relevant and suggested that job titles rather than names should be shown in the list.  Councillor Jones had also suggested that an audit of the plan should be carried out at least once a year.  The Regional Service Manager said that an updated contact list was being reviewed and he agreed that it should reflect job titles not names.  The Chief Executive suggested that both could be used and advised that the plan was reviewed frequently.  

            The Member Engagement Manager said that during earlier discussions it had been requested that the following documents be circulated to the Committee following the meeting:

·         Community Risk Register

·         Redacted COMAH plans

·         Exercise schedules for the sites    

            RESOLVED:

(a)       That the Committee thanks the Chief Executive and the Regional Service Manager for the presentation and is assured by the update;

(b)       That the Committee shall receive future reports on the preparedness of the Council to plan for emergencies and specific follow up reports to any major local or regional emergency events to which the Council has had to respond or exercises which have taken place; and

(c)        That a pack, comprising such material as the community risk register, suitable redacted versions of the COMAH plans and the exercise schedule for sites, be circulated to Members in due course.