A SERIES of emergency exercises are taking place over the next three months so agencies can practise their response to events such as rockfalls and landslides.

Details of the exercises are to be discussed at a meeting of Poole council’s emergency committee on September 10.

On September 28 Exercise Daisy is taking place at Wytch Farm, the Perenco oil gathering station near Furzebrook.

A number of Poole staff will be participating in the statutory test of the on and off site emergency plans for the site.

Alyson Whitley, emergency planning and resilience manager, said in a report to the committee: “Were there to be an incident at the site, a significant response could be required by the council as part of the wider multi-agency response, particularly from a communications perspective as it could have a wide-reaching impact across the conurbation.”

The Emergency Planning and Resilience Team has also been involved in the development of a new rockfall and landslides response plan. In order to test the plan, a multi-agency exercise is being held in November.

“The team has been heavily involved in shaping the exercise and staff from Poole and Bournemouth will attend and be put through their paces as if responding to a real incident,” Ms Whitley said.

And October 9, a live evacuation centre exercise is being run. This follows several incidents in the past few months which required an evacuation centre, including a major flood at Fleetsbridge Roundabout and a fire at Turlin Moor.

Thousands of homes and businesses in Poole were left without water after the first incident in May, which was caused by a burst water main.

Staff from Adult Social Care would be responsible for running an evacuation centre.