Current Arrangements in Gateshead
Arrangements already exist in Gateshead to plan for, respond to and recover from any potential threats to the area. The Council has a major incident plan and other associated plans to ensure that these arrangements are in place. Local arrangements exist between the Tyne and Wear Authorities to be supported in the discharge of emergency planning duties through the Tyne and Wear Emergency Planning Unit ( TWEPU ), currently under the lead management of Sunderland City Council.
The current arrangements consist of:
Resilience Planning Manager – responsible for ensuring that the Council complies with the requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act and to develop resilience arrangements in Gateshead. In addition the Resilience Planning Manager is also to be part of the Emergency Response Team see below.
Emergency Response Team
Incident Control Team ( ICT ) – who provide a strategic lead on the Councils response in an emergency
Headquarters Coordinators – who coordinate the Councils activities during an incident
Site Incident Officers – who liaise with the Emergency Services at the site of the incident communication information to/from the HQ Coordinators and Incident Control
A range of Council Resources – such as transport, rest centres, highways etc
Tyne and Wear Emergency Planning Unit – support the Tyne and Wear local authorities in fulfilling their emergency planning responsibilities.
Regional Arrangements
Tyne and Wear District Liaison Officers Group.
Gateshead Council is represented on the Tyne and Wear District Liaison Officers Group which aims to provide cooperation and consistency in emergency planning and resilience arrangements across Tyne and Wear where appropriate.
Northumbria Local Resilience Forum LRF )
The Northumbria Local Resilience Forum (LRF) is a multi agency group consisting of category 1 and 2 responders (emergency services, local authorities and utility companies for example) The LRF area is coterminous with the Northumbria Police Force Boundaries and comprises Tyne and Wear and Northumberland Local Authorities. The purpose of the group is to facilitate cooperation and sharing of information between the various agencies and to ensure effective delivery of those duties under the Civil Contingencies Act that need to be developed in a multi agency environment. Gateshead Council is represented in the Local Resilience Forum.
The Regional Resilience Forum ( RRF )
This forum was established by a Government Office to discuss civil protection issues from the regional perspective and to create a stronger link between local and central government on resilience issues. The Chair person of the Local Resilience Forum represents the LRF at this Group.