Essex County Council Emergency Centre
On Thursday 21st December 2000 three members of Subbrit visited Essex county council's emergency centre under County Hall in Chelmsford, they were Keith Ward, Nick Catford and myself Duncan Halford.
The emergency centre at County Hall is and always was the main emergency centre for Essex County Council and was opened in 1985 when the old emergency centre became unusable due to flooding. The bunker at Mistley was only their back up centre and Nuclear war shelter, mainly because of its location. The emergency centre at County Hall is a lot smaller then the Mistley bunker but it still has a back up generator and ventilation system, but there is no blast door to protect the entrance.
The
main entrance to County Hall with the emergency centre below it. (left and
below)
As you stand at the front entrance to the council offices, which is next to the library and walk into reception you are then standing directly over the bunker. Walking on through reception and down the stairs you then work your way through a set of doors, some of which have swipe card locks, you then come to the centre itself, there really are only two rooms, "the control room" and the "communications room". This is a lot less rooms than Mistley, but there is very little need today for all the facilities they had at Mistley and so would be hard to justify the cost. If they need beds or food because of a major emergency these can be bought in.
The
tunnel entrance to the centre with the ventilation room on the right
The ventilation system
The
tunnel entrance to the power plant
The main control room with the communications table in the middle, notice the TV in the right hand corner this has satellite TV which has
help in past emergencies
Another view of the control room
The
control set up for quick emergencies with extra communications equipment
Below: A plan layout of the ground floor entrance and the emergency centre
There are no toilets in the bunker because it is below ground level and so below the drains and this has never been sorted out and they could always bring in chemical toilets. The control room can be set up in two ways, firstly for quick emergencies, such as the fuel crisis and the Afghan hijack at Stansted and secondly for long term emergencies the layout would be changed and less communications equipment would be left in.
The
communications room with the SX2000 in the left hand corner of the room
The
computers which activate the sirens for coastal defences
Another
view of the faraday cage containing the SX2000 equipment
A view showing of the back wall and some of the other comms
equipment such as Raynet and County Emergency Radio
Below: Communications centre layout
