New operation centre opens in Bristol

A state of the art operations centre which brings together some of Bristol’s critical support services and acts as a control centre in the event of a major emergency has opened in Bristol.

The new centre brings the council’s Emergency Control Centre, Traffic Control Centre and Community Safety (CCTV) Control Rooms together in the same room for the first time. The teams provide essential public safety services that utilise 700 CCTV cameras around the city.

The facility aims to control the city’s traffic network and monitor the flow of traffic around Bristol, making adjustments to signals and putting diversions in place to keep traffic moving.

The centre also provides a place for staff from transport providers to work together with the council’s traffic management team, providing greater reliability in public transport services and more accurate real time information about services.

In the event of a major emergency incident the centre has the ability to become a group venue, hosting representatives from emergency services and other organisations to plan and co-ordinate the response to that incident.

To manage the range of services provided, the centre has been built around an advanced communication platform that links into the city’s high speed fibre network. The link to this network will also allow the centre to explore communications developments the could one day provide services in areas such as health protection, traffic management, waste management and energy monitoring.

Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, said: “This new centre represents an investment in the safety of citizens and getting the city moving. The challenges we face to beat congestion, support vulnerable people in their homes and secure safer streets require new approaches and new ways of working. By blending state of the art technology and a collaborative approach to sharing operations we’re taking a positive step towards meeting these challenges.”

Andrew Everitt, Head of Exercising at the Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College, said: “Bristol City Council is determined to ensure that their crisis and business continuity management processes are entirely consistent with national best practice.

“The new operations centre in Bristol is world class and provides an enviable facility for diverse responder organisations to work together in managing all types of incidents and events, from response through to recovery. Its multi-functional nature will also ensure that responder organisations have enhanced capabilities at their fingertips. Interoperability sits at the core of good emergency management and this new facility has been designed with this in mind.”