A multi-purpose control centre has opened in Bristol. It brings together the council’s Emergency Control Centre, Traffic Control Centre and Community Safety (CCTV) Control Rooms in a single space for the first time. Some 700 CCTV cameras around the city are monitored there, for traffic and crime prevention purposes.
On the traffic and flow monitoring side, operators make adjustments to signals and put diversions in place to keep traffic moving. The centre also provides a place for staff from transport providers to work with the council’s traffic management team, providing more accurate real time information about services. The Community Safety and traffic control centres have each moved out of their central Bristol previous bases.
Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, said: “This new centre represents an investment in the safety of citizens and getting the city moving. The challenges we face to beat congestion, support vulnerable people in their homes and secure safer streets require new approaches and new ways of working. By blending state of the art technology and a collaborative approach to sharing operations we’re taking a positive step towards meeting these challenges. Collaboration is critical if we’re to better manage the city and respond to the needs of people across Bristol. Our partners in health, police, fire and rescue, transport providers and other sectors will make use of the centre to co-ordinate our response to issues when they arise, making sure the right decisions are taken when action is needed.”
In a major emergency, the centre can become a tactical and strategic group venue, hosting planners and responders.
Andrew Everitt, Head of Exercising at the Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College, said: “Bristol City Council is determined to ensure that their crisis and business continuity management processes are entirely consistent with national best practice. The new operations centre in Bristol is world class and provides an enviable facility for diverse responder organisations to work together in managing all types of incidents and events, from response through to recovery. Its multi-functional nature will also ensure that responder organisations have enhanced capabilities at their finger- tips. Interoperability sits at the core of good emergency management and this new facility has been designed with this in mind.
“The Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College continues to work with Bristol City Council to ensure that their key managers are fully conversant in crisis management best practice and methodology. Some events across the UK this year have thrown a spotlight on the true level of preparedness of responder organisations to work together quickly from the initial response through to recovery phases of a major incident or event this new facility evidences Bristol City Council’s commitment to step up in support of their communities.”
The centre, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, provides also telecare and assistive technology, alarm and security monitoring and lone worker support.
Over 200 junctions are monitored, almost 40 traffic and information signs managed, and 46,500 welfare and telecare calls handled every month. The centre links into the city’s fibre network. That link could allow the centre to follow communications developments that could allow services such as waste management and energy monitoring.
