SNOW, a bomb scare and a three day power outage were among the major incidents dealt with by Bournemouth council over the past 12 months.

A report on emergency planning will be considered by the audit and governance committee on Tuesday.

Specific incidents include the evacuation of residents of Gillam Road in a bomb scare in August last year – which saw a military bomb disposal team attend, and two people arrested.

In October many homes in Boscombe were left without power for three days, and the council has now claimed some £43,000 from SSE for costs incurred taking care of residents.

There was a fire at the Chequers Hotel in February, which saw guests and neighbours evacuated to the BIC for half a day. And of course last month the county was brought to a halt by snow.

According to the report the council also held a simulation in which its computers were rendered unusable due to a fire, to see how services could be maintained for as long as 18 months without the town hall.

The borough plans to continue refining its emergency response procedures and to find a way to provide more storage for bodies in the event of a 'rising tide' excess deaths incident, such as a flu pandemic.