Town hall's new life as emergency base

A Black Country town hall

is to have

a £14,000 upgrade to turn it into an emergency centre.

The building, in Holyhead Road, Wednesbury, will benefit from a new kitchen, a £4,000 IT network and upgraded rooms.

It will then be able to cater for 24-hour emergency operations. The town hall will be the base for Sandwell Council's and the emergency services' response to natural disasters, dangerous gas leaks and terrorism. Currently, there is an underground bunker at Sandwell Council House, in Oldbury.

In the past two incidents when such a facility would be needed, including January's gas leak at the Rhodia chemical plant, the building was itself in the exclusion zone, rendering it useless.

Sandwell Council's resilience manager, Adriel Lowe, said: "We have been looking to find some alternative accommodation.

"The need for an alternative has been highlighted by two accidental chemical releases within the consultation zone.

"The sort of emergencies we are talking about are motorway accidents, chemical leaks, planes falling out of the sky.

'We are on a flight path to Birmingham International Airport.

"There have recently been problems with gas leaks and acetylene cylinders which have involved large evacuation areas, and terrorism is something we have to consider.

Mr Lowe added: " I think the likelihood of an attack on Sandwell is very small."

The emergency centre is at the heart of all communication during disasters, where responses are managed and monitored, and communications maintained.

The bunker at the Council House was developed years ago when the Government offered cash to authorities who built emergency facilities.

It underpins the entire building in Freeth Street, Oldbury. As well as the space used for the emergency centre, part of it is a creche.