Whitmore Street (Hockley) between Ford Street and Heaton Street will be closed between 4pm and approximately 10pm. A local diversion will be implemented during this time.

The city council pay and display car park under Hockley Flyover will be closed all day for exclusive use by emergency service vehicles. The service road under the flyover on the opposite side of Hockley Circus will be closed too.

Parking enforcement officers will also be deployed in the vicinity of Hockley Circus to ensure that traffic continues to flow freely.

The full report is available at http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/other/mwe2009.pdf

The exercise scenario involved major flooding across UK regions, both in major cities and rural areas.  The exercise involved 76 organisations and 5,000 participants and took place over two half days. The exercise planners contacted many organisations as part of their preparations and Birmingham Resilience Team provided information about Birmingham’s flood risks based on real locations and our experiences.

The report identifies the following next steps:

• The Tripartite Authorities will review how they engage with the financial sector during incidents, including use of the Financial Sector Continuity website. The role of the Tripartite Incident Response Framework will be clarified, including activation triggers and associated procedures.
• The Association of British Insurers is considering introducing market-wide agreements between general insurers with regard to automatic extension of cover.
• The Building Societies Association is considering forming a specialist Business Continuity Contingency Panel as an information and advice forum for individual societies.
• Recovery site providers involved in the exercise will examine current wording to clarify that the onus is on the customer to get the staff to the recovery site. Similarly customers are not to expect the offer of a secondary site due to difficulties with the journey to the recovery site.
• The Tripartite Authorities will examine ways of encouraging and assisting exercises specific to certain sectors and/or infrastructure providers.

These steps are welcomed by Birmingham Resilience Team. In addition to our advice and information about business continuity planning, visit our events pages to find out about exercises that we are holding for businesses in Birmingham.

Birmingham Community Alert

Jan Quigley, Emergency Planning Officer, explained how this new ‘free to the user’ system, which went live earlier this year, worked. Residents, business users etc. register a maximum of three Birmingham postcodes for which they want to receive up to date information about emergency incidents within those areas.  The alert can be transmitted via SMS text, landline telephone, email and fax.   To find out more go to our Birmingham Community Alert information page.

Birmingham Resilience Champions

Every neighbourhood, faith, community, business and workplace organisation is being encouraged to identify one or two members to act as Birmingham Resilience Champions.  One important role will be to ensure that the resilience message reaches as many people as possible, so that individuals, families and communities are better prepared to minimise the impact of emergencies should they occur. Martin Tolman, Birmingham City Council Emergency Planning Manager explained the role, and 15 Birmingham Resilience Champions were signed up on the spot.

Martin said ‘You are already active members of your community groups and organisations. This initiative will provide a fantastic platform to ensure that our information and advice can reach out to a much wider audience.  It is only by working in partnership with the emergency services, other statutory organisations and our communities that we can make Birmingham a truly resilient city’.

Are you an active member of your community?  Would you like to volunteer to be a Birmingham Resilience Champion?  If so please contact Jan Quigley by contacting us.

Since the floods in 2008, the community, supported by both the New Frankley in Birmingham Parish Council and Birmingham City Council Officers, Residents Groups, Voluntary Groups and elected members have been working together to reduce the risk of flooding and improve the environment.

Veronica Coleman, Principal Emergency Planning Officer from Birmingham Resilience Team said, “If you were involved please let us know how the day went or if you are interested in volunteering for the next clean up, please let us know.  Well done to everyone concerned”

See the photos from the day by going to our Flickr site

See our advice for in the home

Receive emergency messages by registering for Birmingham Community Alert