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London authorities invest in technology to secure the safety of its staff, business community and residents
A major step towards protecting 600,000 Londoners from disaster has been reached after two of the city's largest local authorities, secured contracts with the UK's leading emergency communications company.
The borough councils of Croydon and Lewisham have invested in a new service called Warn & Inform, to enable emergency voice calls, SMS text messages, pager and emails to be sent to over 10,000 council workers, to local businesses, schools and residents to instruct them of what to do in the event of a major incident.
The system is supported by many of the major businesses within the area as an integral part of their staff safety and crisis communication plans.
The authorities have procured the new service to protect their staff, businesses and residents from a range of incidents including bomb threats, emergency road closures, fire, flooding, building collapse and gas leaks.
The Warn and Inform system is a major upgrade to the Priority Alert emergency communication system, which has been providing real time security information to businesses since its inception in the City of London after the Bishopsgate bombing in the early 1990's.
The Priority Alert system is used by a number of local authorities in major cities across the UK including the City of London, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, Bristol and Leeds, and is the most depended upon system of its type in the UK.
Vocal, who is a market leading provider of corporate communication solutions, uses SMS text, voice, interactive voice response, paging and email to disseminate vital information about potential incidents.
Cllr Steve O'Connell, cabinet member for safety and cohesion at Croydon Borough Council, said: "In today's world, there are a number of dangers that our residents, businesses and employees face while they are going about their day-to-day business. We have made this investment to ensure the safety of our staff, as well as everyone else in the borough. The council is committed to its on-going business continuity programme. I am pleased to say that we have not had a major incident in our area and this new system will make sure that if it does happen, we are well-prepared."
The London Borough of Croydon is London's largest by population, with over 360,000 residents living in the region. Lewisham Borough Council looks after over 240,000 residents, 6,700 businesses and includes a mile of the River Thames.
John Brown Head of Emergency Planning at Lewisham Borough Council, said: "The new system will allow us to ensure that our own council staff and local business's and residents in the borough will be able to be informed of key warnings, before, during and after an incident. It will also enhance the evacuation plan that we have around our town centres."
