Is Yorkshire and the Humber prepared?

by Jayne Elliott
BBC News Online

Killingholme oil refinery was rocked by an explosion in April 2001

The Yorkshire and Humber region contains a number of important military bases and one of the UK's most important oil processing facilities.

As well as numerous RAF and Army barracks, North Yorkshire is home to RAF Fylingdales and Menwith Hill.

Fylingdales now forms part of the US anti-missile defence programme while the Menwith Hill spy base is used by US intelligence services.

SITUATION AROUND THE UK

Killingholme oil refinery near Immingham refines 85m barrels a year.

The North East Lincolnshire plant, owned by America's third largest energy group, Conoco, also produces 8% of the UK's petrol.

A blast at the 480-acre site in April 2001 showed the impact it could have if terrorists were to attack the plant.

The region is also home to Leeds-Bradford and Humberside International airports.

Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield airport- is due to open in spring 2005, on the site of the former RAF Finningley base.

In January this year, the BBC revealed security lapses at Humberside airport after a reporter was able to walk unchallenged on to the aircraft manoeuvring area.

As we have people in North Yorkshire, then there is no doubt it makes us a terrorist target Robin Myshrall, North Yorkshire Emergency Planning Unit

However, a spokeswoman for Humberside Airport said: "We are confident that our security procedures - visible and invisible - are appropriate, and reflect both the vulnerabilities of the individual areas of the site, and the level of risk."

Despite the potential targets, emergency planners in the region admit that detailed preparations for coping with a terrorist strike are effectively on hold until the Civil Contingencies Bill is made law next spring.

The bill should set out what responsibilities local authorities have in the event of an attack.

John Whitman from the Humber emergency planning unit said: "We have emergency plans in place in line with government plans, but we are not working towards a risk assessment at the moment."

Security at the airport has been stepped up since 9/11

Emergency planners in South and West Yorkshire did not want to give details, but also said they were waiting until the new law came into effect.

However, North Yorkshire planners said they believe it was impossible to be fully prepared for a possible terrorist strike.

Robin Myshrall, head of the county's Emergency Planning Unit, said: "I wouldn't say we are prepared for an attack and I don't think any authority can say it is fully prepared, but we do the best we can to improve our preparedness with what we have got.

"The nature of terrorist attacks means we do not know what could happen so we prepare not for a specific event, but for a general outcome.

"We have recently witnessed a terrorist attack on a Russian school, so who is to say what a terrorist target is? It can be infrastructure, but more likely the target can be people.

"As we have people in North Yorkshire then there is no doubt it makes us a terrorist target."

CBRN Yorkshire and Humber 1. Each of the four fire brigades in the region have one incident response unit 2. It is protocol for the brigades to carry gas tight suits but they do not have enough for all six personnel on the appliances 3. Regional ambulance services have 18 decontamination units 4. Ambulances services have 450 chemical protection suits 5. The region has 95 fire appliances and 3,730 full time firefighters

Mr Myshrall said the region's transport network, including major north/ south road and rail links, was another obvious target.

On a more local level, parish councils are playing a major part in emergency planning by working to assess what skills residents have in each area to help in an emergency.

Mr Myshrall said: "We look at where the doctors, skilled people such as electricians and people with plant machinery are based."

The region's hospitals and emergency services referred all BBC News Online's inquiries about how they are preparing to the Home Office.

However, NHS figures show that local hospitals operate at above 85% capacity, which means they have little room for a sudden influx of critical patients.

This article is intended as an overview for the Yorkshire and the Humber region. For further information visit the related internet links on the right hand side of the page.