The Leeds Online Protocol

Leeds City Council's Peace and Emergency Planning Unit and the BBC Leeds website have developed an 'Emergencies Information' web page on behalf of the Leeds City Centre Network for Emergency Planning.

It is part of a wider system whose objectives are...

• To alert major city centre organisations promptly when an emergency incident is in progress that may have consequences for them.
• To provide regularly updated general information on the nature and scale of an incident and to inform an organisation's decision-making.
• To provide details of where further information can be found.
• This system does not replace other mechanisms for alerting and informing the community.

It is envisaged that the system will be used for major incident scenarios like...

• Bomb threats.
• Severe weather or major incidents affecting public transport.
• Incidents that compromise critical services (e.g. the Fuel Crisis).
• Major highways incidents.
• Significant utility failures (electricity, gas, water and communications).
• Chemical or other pollution threats to public health.

The 'Emergency Information' option on the site's menu bar will be present on a permanent basis to develop users' awareness of the existence of the service.

In the absence of a live incident, the site will say: "This web page has been created to enable key service providers to deliver information about emergency incidents taking place within Leeds City Centre. There are currently no emergencies."

For further information, contact Richard Davies,
at the Leeds Peace and Emergency Planning Unit
Tel: 0113 247 4513 Email: richard.davies@leeds.gov.uk
The website can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/leeds