Following one of the biggest evacuations in the UK since World War II, Plymouth City Council continues to support residents in Keyham, as officers work hard to support the recovery effort following the events over the past few days.
Hundreds of Council officers worked around the clock during evacuation, this included:
- Supporting the evacuation of 3,250 people on Wednesday and an additional 7,070 people on Friday (total: 10,320)
- Setting up and staffing rest centre, initially at the PCH Beacon Centre and then moving to the Life Centre (over 1,000 people visited one of the centres over the course of the three days)
- Supporting the army in preparing for the operation, including implementing dozens of road closures, sourcing and arranging for over 300 tonnes of sand to be available and dropped into the area.
- Supporting those residents closest to the bomb site – this included providing a Council liaison to ensure that they were updated on the latest situation and arranging for their household belongings to be fully decanted from their homes and placed in temporary storage.
- Communicating with residents – creating an online ‘incident hub’ with regular updates (over 73,000 individual views), a postcode tracker so people could see if they were being evacuated (used by 3,000 people) social media content, arranging dozens of media interviews and utilising the Government’s alert system. (The first time the system had ever been used in an emergency).
- Setting up and staffing a 24/7 helpline offering help and support (which had nearly 1,000 phone calls over the three days)
- Supporting vulnerable residents to evacuate – including providing transport and equipment, particularly for those who were physically unable to leave their homes. This included the total evacuation of an adult residential care home
- Arranging temporary accommodation for those residents who were evacuated and had nowhere to go (arranged for 180 households)
- Supporting families in the area – ensuring that children were kept safe.
- Working with the six schools and nurseries within the cordon, to ensure that they were able to evacuate safely.
- Working over night to agree the logistics and plans for an evacuation route for the bomb removal.
Whilst the bomb has now been detonated safely, the work to support the community continues, with staff working hard to help Keyham get back to normal. Over the weekend, Council officers visited St Michael Avenue to meet residents and discuss the clean-up. This includes removing large numbers of sandbags, arranging to return property that was put in storage, ensuring utilities have been restored, assisting with advice around any damage, removing any waste and rubbish. This work is likely to continue for the next few days. In the wider area, any waste and recycling collections that were missed will be rescheduled.
In addition, items collected to support people in Keyham and the surrounding areas at the rest centres, e.g. sanitary products, shower gel, toothpaste, dog food etc, have now been donated to Keyham Green Places, who will be offering them to local people needing help and support moving forward.
Councillor Tudor Evans, Leader of Plymouth City Council, said: “I have been inundated with messages over the past few days recognising the work of the Council and a whole host of partners across the city, in supporting Keyham last week. The Council has an emergency plan, and officers regularly practice our plans and procedures for dealing with unknown potential disasters. But, as they say the proof is in the pudding.
“I am proud that when the chips were down, we stepped up. I have already praised those men who bravely dealt with the bomb itself – but I also want to recognise the Council staff and partners that went above and beyond. The passion for wanting to do the right thing for Plymouth, to not let anyone down and really protect and support those who were impacted. It was outstanding. I am so proud of the work of Council officers and our partner organisations last week. And whilst it isn’t over – I know we will continue working together whilst we help Keyham recover.”
Tracey Lee, Chief Executive of Plymouth City Council, added: “Planning for an emergency is really important. We have robust plans and strategies in place that are regularly tried and tested. But there are two lynch pins for success – our staff and our partners.
“Our staff were phenomenal! They achieved things that I didn’t think were possible. Council staff showed passion, consideration and caring – each one dedicated to doing the right thing.
“Staff had to be practical and show ingenuity – from finding hundreds of tonnes of sand to dozens of wheelchairs, setting up rest centres with hundreds of volunteers to booking removal vehicles to help those people living directly around the bomb. Many of our staff were having to deal with this situation whilst being directly impacted themselves.
“The second most important thing is our partners. There were dozens of organisations involved in the wider operation. And ultimately, we all worked as together as one. Everyone focused on supporting and protecting our community and achieving something extraordinary.
“I know that there are still things that need to happen as we continue to recover, but together we will get there.
“I would like to thank everyone for their support and work last week. We demonstrated the resilience and power of community last week.”