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“Prepare for Emergencies”
A new leaflet (called a Z Card), which could help to save lives has been circulated to 223,000 homes in the Boroughs of Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Stockton on Tees and Redcar & Cleveland. It cleverly folds down to the size of a credit card and gives vital advice and contact details to help people cope with a wide range of emergencies. Cleveland Emergency Planning Officers, Local Councils, the ‘Blue Light Services’, and local industries have joined forces to produce the leaflet, which is a first for the North of England. The project has been co-ordinated by Tony Wright of Cleveland Emergency Planning Unit and the information on the Z Card covers such things as flooding, severe weather, explosion, large chemical fires or gas releases, power failures as well as other major incidents which could have significant implications on the local community. In addition there are also useful basic fire safety messages for the home. Hartlepool Mayor, Stuart Drummond, who is a member of the Joint Emergency Planning Committee, launched the publicity drive at the Civic Centre, Hartlepool on Friday 24th March 2006 He said, “There are now greater duties on the public services such as the Council to warn and inform the public and I think these Z Cards are a great idea. It is something that should be kept in a safe place in the home because it could mean the difference between life and death. The project has been a successful partnership between the various organisations and I would like to thank everyone for their support and sponsorship”.
Denis Hampson, the Chief Emergency planning Officer for Cleveland, said,
“This awareness raising follows hard on the heals of the Civil
Contingencies Act which places new duties on a number of organisations
to communicate effectively with the local community, Not only to
pre-warn the public on what action to take in the event of an emergency,
but the actions to take in the unlikely event of such an emergency
actually taking place.”
Download a copy of the Z-Card (476Kb .pdf)
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