Gloucestershire's Local Resilience Forum will run a series of multi-agency exercises this week to test the area's flood capabilities.

The three-day exercise involving Gloucestershire Constabulary, Ministry of Defence Police, Glos Fire & Rescue Service and Great Western Ambulance Service will be held in the Forest of Dean, which Gloucestershire Police Sergeant John Garner says poses a "unique" challenge for the bluelight services when it comes to flooding.

"It is well known that Lydney is a unique town when it comes to flooding, because of its location on the Severn estuary and the presence of the River Lyd," he said.

"This exercise is aimed at making sure all the agencies can work together effectively to help the people of Lydney if serious flooding occurs. Hopefully people will feel reassured that we take the risk and our responsibilities to safeguard the town seriously."

Having mapped out the plans in a 'table-top' exercise, crews from all the Emergency Services and volunteer agencies will test the response in action on the 21st, 23rd and 29th of this month.

According to Chief Fire Officer John Hall, these kind of collaborations are key to improving speed of recovery should an incident ever take place.

He added: "These exercises will once again see Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service working in close collaboration with the Police and Ambulance.

"Opportunities to practice scenarios like this also strengthen a common purpose between the emergency services and the voluntary groups like SARA and the Maritime Volunteers. So if in the entirely foreseeable event that we do need to respond for real, we can all provide a timely and efficient response to the public we serve."

Visit www.gloucestershireprepared.co.uk or follow @Glos_Prepared on Twitter for more information.

Posted 19/03/2012 by richard.hook@pavpub.com