Major emergency planning exercise taking place next week 

Public bodies across Northamptonshire will take part in an extensive live exercise next week to test the county’s emergency response procedures. 

Police, fire and rescue, ambulance, unitary councils, the integrated care board and NHS partners, will respond to a mock scenario on Tuesday 13 May to test their incident plans. Other organisations such as the Environment Agency, UK Health Security Agency and the military will also take part in the exercise in St James, Northampton. 

Training exercises such as this have been taking place across the UK over the last couple of years in a bid to test joint working and preparedness, should a major incident happen. Plans exist within each organisation and are regularly tested in tabletop exercises, but this is the first time in more than ten years a real-life test of those plans has taken place in Northamptonshire. 

Deputy Chief Constable, Ashley Tuckley, is chair of the Northamptonshire Local Resilience Forum (LRF). He said: “This mock exercise has been in planning for some time and will present a real challenge to our emergency response. It will allow all partners the opportunity to test their own and joint plans in the field, bringing them off the page and providing vital learning, something recommended following major incidents in other parts of the UK, including Manchester and London. 

“We don’t have advance warning of what to expect, so hopefully this is as close as we’ll come to dealing with a genuine emergency. One thing we do know at this stage is that there will be an extensive no-fly zone in place across all of St James, Edgar Mobbs Way, Northampton Train Station and parts of Far Cotton, meaning drones must not be flown in this area. 

“Our LRF does a huge amount of work behind the scenes to prepare for these kinds of incidents, so I’m confident that between us we have the capability we need to respond effectively. There will almost certainly be things that we can all learn from such an exercise which will strengthen our approach even further.” 

The exact scenario to be tested won’t be made public until the exercise is under way, however, there will be a lot of activity involving the emergency services on May 13 in St James. There is also likely to be an increased presence by the emergency services and military in the area on May 12 and 14. 

DCC Tuckley added: “We’d like to apologise in advance for the minor disruption this activity might cause to local residents and businesses. Police colleagues have been out and about alerting those who live or work in the area and have had a very positive response. It’s incredibly important that we’re as prepared as we can be for incidents of this kind, and we’re grateful to everyone for their patience and understanding.” 

Members of the Northampton Neighbourhood Policing Team will be parked with the Beat Bus in the car park of the Thomas Beckett pub, Weedon Road on May 13, if you would like to speak to someone while the exercise takes place. 

The team will also be sharing updates via Northamptonshire Talking before, during and after the exercise. If you would like to receive these updates, but are not already signed-up to Northamptonshire Talking, you can do so via www.northamptonshiretalking.co.uk  

We will endeavour to minimise disruption as much as possible and urge anyone with any questions ahead of the exercise to contact the Northampton Neighbourhood Policing Team via NeighbourhoodTeamNorthampton@northants.police.uk