At the September Community Council (CC) meeting, CC Secretary, Captain Alistair McLundie reported on the state of readiness of the community emergency plan. The current content has all the key points as indicated in the Argyll and Bute Council’s template but cannot be progressed further without volunteers. There are a lot of people required to help and Alistair needs to know who would be willing to offer their services to fulfill various roles. For example, an emergency management team is required and, in addition to the invitation extended at the CC meeting, this request will also be sent to other local organisations. There is also a need for ‘foot soldiers’, i.e., community coordinators who would be willing to knock on doors checking on residents and volunteers who own and would be willing to put into service their 4×4 vehicles to move people in the event of an emergency.
If you are interested in volunteering in any of these capacities or simply wish to know more about what would be involved, please contact Alistair – CaptainMcLundie@aol.com – as soon as possible. With the onset of winter almost upon us, he is anxious to get the plan implementation-ready.
Meanwhile the HM Naval Base Clyde Off-Site Emergency Plan is still a work in progress. According to an Argyll & Bute Council representative the Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations 2019 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2019/703/contents/made) were passed in Parliament on 22 May 2019. These state that the plan should be published within a year. As ‘… there is considerable collaboration and communication required to ensure it (the plan) is fit for purpose’, it is not possible to give an exact publication date but it will be available within the legislative time frame.
