Glasgow, UK plans ahead for total city centre evacuation

In a surprising move, Glasgow, largest city in Scotland, has published plans for the wholesale evacuation of its city centre in the event of a catastrophe ... with possibly over 100,000 residents & employees being affected. The city centre has been divided into 22 zones for civil defence purposes & plans have been drawn up to evacuate in the event of major utility failure, serious fire, natural disaster or terrorist incident.

Appropriate assembly points have been identified for people leaving the city, there are also prepared transport arrangements to move people on to rest centres and special arrangements have been made for the evacuation of vulnerable people. The public will be warned of the need for evacuation or where one is imminent through a variety of channels including messages broadcast by the media and communications networks in the city centre.

City Centre Evacuation

Businesses & individuals are being encouraged to sign up for text/cellphone alerts from the Police.

Glasgow Alert

Residents & employees are also being encouraged to have a grab bag readily available holding the following items :- medication, glasses & contact lenses, house & car keys, cash, credit & debit cards, change of clothing, footwear, nightwear, shaving washing & sanitary supplies plus any special items required for the young old & disabled.

Residents Evacuation Guidance (pdf)

Residents are also being issued with signs for placing in windows requesting help from the authorities in the event of telecoms failure.

Residents Help Required Notice (pdf)

and businesses are being issued with "Empty & Secured" notices to affix on their premises after evacuation is complete.

Business Empty & Secured Notice (pdf)

I'm posting this information here simply because it's so unusual for a major UK city to be planning ahead for its own evacuation, the scale of this plan really beggars belief. I worked in the Civil Defence Corps until they were disbanded in the late 1960's, thereafter in the Royal Observer Corps. Civil Defence planning in the UK until the early 1960's assumed that even in the very worst scenario possible ... imminent nuclear attack ... that only certain groups would be evacuated from the cities, women & children, the elderly & disabled. Essential workers had to remain behind. That guidance was dropped when it became clear that nowhere in the UK, certainly in the south, would be safe from nuclear attack.

Even today, the Home Office "Preparing for Emergencies" guidance is "Go in, stay in, tune in" ... not evacuate a whole city.

Home Office - Preparing for Emergencies (pdf)

That's why I'm finding Glasgow's plans to be so disturbing, I'm wondering if this isn't a shift in official policy in the light of some new threat identified ... or whether it isn't some more "fearmongering" on the part of the authorities.

I'm also curious to see whether Glasgow civil defence planning is being duplicated in other cities too.

I hope it is just "planning". It really makes you wonder if they know something that the rest of us don't.


Good find.

Maybe they saw Doomsday on Sky at the weekend and thought they'd best be prepared?

But seriously, we have to file casualty evacuation plans when working at a bothy in the hills, yet we've never, ever had to use them and I doubt we ever will. This is just the same thing on a much bigger scale. Probably implemented by a health & safety jobsworth with too much time and no consideration for spending public money. But better prepared than not, I guess?

Only two weeks ago, Glasgow suffered from an almost complete blackout due to a failure at a major sub-station. Hospitals, homes, streets and businesses were without power for hours. We lost a major network node as our generators were not fuelled sufficiently (cost cutting for you!).

It comes as no surprise to find that Glasgow has now implemented a plan for securing the city and it's occupants in case of any major incident. They also had the "flaming man" attacks on the airport as well, remember.

Originally posted by The Lass
The city centre has been divided into 22 zones for civil defence purposes & plans have been drawn up to evacuate in the event of major utility failure, serious fire, natural disaster or terrorist incident.

Appropriate assembly points have been identified for people leaving the city, there are also prepared transport arrangements to move people on to rest centres and special arrangements have been made for the evacuation of vulnerable people. The public will be warned of the need for evacuation or where one is imminent through a variety of channels including messages broadcast by the media and communications networks in the city centre.

It all seems standard practice for governments to prepare the public for emergencies. People in general are too stupid to think about "what happens in an emergency" and need to be reminded.

Personally I don't think there's much chance of an evacuation, more a lock-in which is why the city has been divided. These areas would go into shut-down mode, hard to get in, hard to get out. A policy of containment.

I'm sure what's so sinister about it.

Well, according to the map my work is in zone 17. Well that'll sure make me feel a whole lot better when the government hits us with a false-flag operation!

I might actually sign up for the text message alerts out of interest. It's a good way to get an early notification fo what's happening and where.

Oh do not worry, if that Petro chemical/Oil Refinary was to blow up in Central Scotland, They will not need to evacuate. There would not be anyone left alive to evacuate. If that blew up.

[edit on 16-4-2009 by Laurauk]

Interesting, Starred and flagged.

I wonder where the ordinary 6,000 cictizens who were trained by the Government for "an" attack has anything to do with this.

Though quite how you can prepare someone for something you've not even told them about - as well as describ this in an insulting manner to the public - is well and truly beyond me.

I wonder if they are related anyway...

reply to post by The Lass

Even today, the Home Office "Preparing for Emergencies" guidance is "Go in, stay in, tune in" ... not evacuate a whole city.

This is really interesting...the whole thread, so thank you for posting. This little bit worries me more than the rest, though....why would they want to evacuate the entire city centre? What possibilities are there for a disaster requiring this? If Glasgow has this, then surely Edinburgh and Aberdeen will too...I must dig about and see what I can find.