Issue - meetings

ES20362

The committee was updated concerning the counter terrorism exercise that had been undertaken in the Glade Shopping Centre on 25^th February. Over 700 people had been involved, including 300 members of the public. Specialist police services and other emergency services were involved and a Survivor Reception Centre was opened. Much learning was had from the exercise itself and from the following post exercise de-briefings.

A discussion took place concerning cyber security and maintaining business continuity and resilience while the Council was moving to a new premises. It was noted that the Council’s IT system would be moving from a server based system to the Cloud which would make it more robust. IT had a Disaster Recovery Plan if needed. There was always the fallback of working from home that had been used during Covid if required.

The committee was updated with regard to ‘Martyn’s Law’. It was noted that this Law would apply only to premises and not to open spaces. The Government would reflect on recent consultation responses. It was unlikely that any legislation would be passed until 2025 and then there would be a time of reflection and adjustment to allow those affected to put any required measures in place.

The Chairman directed the committee’s attention to Appendix B, which was concerning resilience standards and the assessments that took place with respect to those standards. It was noted that there was a process involved whereby the Emergency Planning and Corporate Resilience Lead would undertake the assessment first, this would then be checked by the Director for Environment and Public Protection, and then signed off by the Chief Executive. A peer review would also be undertaken by five other local authorities in the southeast cluster system. In terms of being scrutinised by the Public Protection and Enforcement Committee, the time to scrutinise the resilience standards would be now, as the meeting was taking place. The Chairman requested that  in the next annual review, information regarding resilience standards and the assessment process be highlighted and clarified in a separate document.

The issue of falling masonry in Penge High Street was raised and it was clarified that issues of this nature should be reported to Building Control or the Borough Surveyor.

RESOLVED that the Emergency Planning and Corporate Resilience Service update be noted.