Residents warned not to be alarmed!

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POLICE are warning members of the public in Warrington not to be alarmed today when a huge partner agency training exercise aimed at chemical, biological and nuclear attacks takes place in the town.
Code name “Exercise Flame” takes place in Warrington today (Tuesday Sept 14) when a number of Police Forces join up with partner emergency services in a two day large scale regional training exercise.
Exercise Flame, which has taken months of arranging, involves officers from Cheshire Police and their counterparts from Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cumbria, North Wales and Northern Ireland, along with staff from Cheshire Fire and Rescue and North West Ambulance Service.
The exercise will take place at the former regional police training centre in Bruche, Warrington, and will allow all participants to test their ability to mobilise rapidly and effectively in the event of large scale public order and CBRN incidents (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear). It will also allow participants to develop common regional practices and processes and ensure effective collaboration.
On both days officers will be briefed at Cheshire Police’s HQ at various points during the day and will then travel over to the exercise site in convoy.
Insp Alastair Hinze of Cheshire Police said: “The public may see large numbers of emergency service vehicles on the route, but should not be alarmed. This is an exercise which is designed to ensure we are thoroughly prepared for major incidents where a regional collaboration is required. Such collaboration is beneficial when a swift and robust emergency service response is necessary whilst minimising the impact on normal policing requirements. It allows us to ensure mutual best practice, in order to promote public safety and bring public order or CBRN incidents to a safe conclusion.”
Cheshire Police officers engaged in the exercise have not been extracted from normal duties, and therefore will not be detrimental to normal policing demands.
The exercise has not been planned in relation to any specific intelligence or threat, but is a key part of continuous work undertaken by all forces to maintain resilience in dealing with major incidents.
Officers will be travelling throughout the day from Winsford to Bruche, Warrington along the following route:
From Cheshire Police HQ, Winsford through Whitegate and onto the A556 Chester Rd at Sandiway. Continue along A556 onto the M6 at Jct 19. Exit M6, JCT 21, A57 Warrington along to Bruche training centre, Greenway, Warrington.


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Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.

6 Comments

  1. Well thanks for all the warning, I’m sure everybody in the area before leaving for work/town/in the bruche area checked the local press just in case there was some sort of drill …well planned! (whats the saying coulnt organise a …… in a brewery!)

  2. The thing I find alarming is the cost of yet another public sector jolly- If they can put this on without being detrimental to normal policing demands then either they are all doing quite nicely on overtime or just highlighting an area where budget savings could easily be made!- Surely effective collaboration should be determined in the boardroom not the playground !

  3. I think it’s a good idea. Surely it’s a good thing to have carried out a full scale ‘realistic’ training excercise involving all services ‘just incase’ they ever have to deal with a real major incident. Not the sort of thing you can act out around a boardroon table is it ! And if they weren’t doing it because of cost cutting or similar then people would moan about that too. Can’t win eh 🙂

  4. Warrington needs all the practise it can get. You only have to look at the winter farce when a new phenomenon called snow arrived. ALL the headless chickens turned up and cried “Help”.

  5. It would have been polite to give the residents a lot more more warning when planning something like this. I’m just reading this now but this morning seeing major incident vehicles bristling with antennas and large communications dishes made us wonder what the hell was going on.

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