NCP - Appendix J

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NATIONAL CONTINGENCY PLAN FOR MARINE POLLUTION FROM SHIPPING AND OFFSHORE INSTALLATIONS

APPENDIX J

SHORELINE RESPONSE CENTRE
Introduction
J.1 This appendix contains recommendations to local authorities on the establishment of an SRC.

General
J.2 The purpose of an SRC is to provide an organisation through which local authorities can discharge their responsibilities for preventing and mitigating pollution of the shoreline. The SRC should bear in mind that under international conventions, response measures and their associated costs need to be reasonable. The responsibilities of an SRC are likely to include:

determining the extent of the problem;
devising a strategy for dealing with it;
co-ordinating actions within that strategy (including the recovery and reuse or final disposal of waste arising from any operation);
monitoring progress and effectiveness; and
liaising with the other response units involved in the same incident and briefing the media, local councillors and the public.

J.3 The coastal pollution response plan of each local authority should therefore contain provision for setting up an SRC. Local authorities may agree that another local authority will provide the SRC for their area, in which case their plan need only refer to this arrangement. The plans for the establishment of an SRC should contain arrangements:

to enable them to act, where necessary, on behalf of more than one local authority; and
to enable the SRC to benefit from co-operation with the MCA, statutory conservation agencies, environmental regulators, public health bodies, non governmental organisations and any other relevant organisations.

J.4 The first local authority to receive the pollution normally establishes an SRC. It may subsequently be preferable to re-locate the SRC to another local authority as the extent or emphasis of the pollution moves to that other authority’s area.

J.5 The SRC needs clear arrangements for adopting a strategy, deciding on the specific actions, establishing priorities between actions, and authorising the contracts and expenditure needed to give effect to those decisions. Each local authority’s plan should therefore include:

provisions for appointing the officer or officers authorised to take decisions on behalf of the authority, and laying down the framework within which they are to operate;
provisions for enabling the relevant officers of another authority which is taking the lead on behalf of a group of authorities to act on behalf of it; and
arrangements for determining how to divide the costs of joint local authority action among the relevant authorities.

J.6 Experience shows that it is helpful to organise an SRC on the basis of five functional teams.

a management team;
a technical team;
a procurement team;
a media and public relations team; and
an information and administration team.

J.7 The local authority normally chairs and provides administrative support to each functional team.

J.8 The SRC seeks advice from the Environment Group established for the incident.

Management Team
J.9 The role of the Management Team is:

to quickly determine priorities for action in protecting sensitive areas and dealing with pollution at the various polluted sites. These decisions should be disseminated as soon as possible to those inside and outside the SRC;
to exercise strategic management of financial expenditure;
to maintain a log of the policy decisions taken and ensure that all other teams keep records of policy and financial decisions.
to prepare regular situation reports on the conduct of operations for circulation to all interested parties (based on briefings supplied by the Technical Team);
to interact with elected representatives, central government, the public and the media; and
To make appropriate arrangements to keep affected landowners informed and, where practical, consult significant landowners. Consideration should be given to the inclusion of significant landowners in the Management Team.

J.10 The recommended composition of the Management Team is as follows:

ENGLAND	NORTHERN IRELAND	SCOTLAND	WALES
Chair: Local authority Chief Executive or representative	Chair: EHS Director of Environmental Protection	Chair: Local authority Chief Executive or representative	Chair: Local authority Chief Executive or representative
Emergency Planning Officer	Principal Scientific Officer (Water Management Unit)	Emergency Planning Officer	Emergency Planning Officer
Oil Pollution Officer	Emergency Pollution Officer	Oil Pollution Officer	Oil Pollution Officer
Environment Group Liaison Officer	Environment Group Liaison Officer	Environment Group Liaison Officer	Environment Group Liaison Officer
MCA Scientist	MCA Scientist	MCA Scientist	MCA Scientist

Representatives of other organisations which can help with strategic issues:

ENGLAND	NORTHERN IRELAND	SCOTLAND	WALES
Environment Agency	Department of Agriculture and Rural Development	Scottish Environment Protection Agency	Environment Agency

Significant landowners, public and private, affected by the incident.

The chair or the vice-chair of the various functional teams will be part of the Management Team.

Where more than one local authority is affected, arrangements should be made to ensure that they are all adequately represented on the Management Team.

A member of the relevant Regional Government Officer if invited by the Chair

J.11There should be one sub group of the Management Team – the strategy sub-group. The objective of this sub group is to provide the Management Team with an overview of short, medium and long term issues to be addressed as the response evolves. The group identifies the short , medium and longer term issues for each of the functional teams to consider. They draw up a matrix identifying significant and potentially significant issues for the SRC response strategy as a whole, but especially for the Management Team to consider. Time frames for the issues could be: next one to three days; three to day days and beyond ten days.

Technical Team
J.12 Reporting to the Management Team, the Technical Team is responsible for dealing with the conduct of operations by:

determining a reasonable strategy for dealing with pollution at the various locations (to achieve this, close liaison with the Environment Group is essential);
allocating resources on a priority basis determined by the Management Team;
informing the Management Team of any resource shortfalls;
allocating contractors to specific tasks as determined by the Management Team;
transmitting decisions to local forward control centres;
monitoring the progress of operations; and
to inform or consult affected landowners in accordance with the Management Team’s policy.

J.13 The Technical Team comprises representatives of:

MCA (scientific/technical officer);
local authority (or EHS Deputy Emergency Pollution Officer for Northern Ireland) having expertise in:
technical and engineering services (or EHS, Scientific Staff),
waste management (or EHS Waste Management and Contaminated Land Unit),
health and safety (and local Environmental Health (rivers) Officer in Northern Ireland), and
administrative support, particularly minute taking;
local authority liaison officers;
Environment Group (Environment Liaison Officer (ELO)) (most likely the same individual as the ELO on Management Team);
EA (for England and Wales) or SEPA (for Scotland);
police (to assist in route planning, traffic control, possible road closure, etc);
Coastguard to provide local knowledge (for example, access to beaches, knowledge of local tides); and
representatives of other (statutory) organisations as appropriate

J.14 To enable the Technical Team to manage its many tasks, there should be three sub-groups:

a waste management sub-group: to prepare a plan for temporary storage of collected waste and manage the final disposal options⁴⁶;
a health and safety sub-group: to ensure that proper health and safety procedures are in place and that Beach Masters are properly briefed in these matters; and
a booming / equipment sub group

J.15 The Technical Team must obtain a daily progress report from all Beach Masters. They should then review their plan and submit any revisions to the Management Team.

Procurement Team
J.16 Reporting to the Technical Team, and working to them on allocated tasks, this team is responsible for:

procuring, marshalling and routing equipment to designated areas. However, where MCA is to pay for resources, its prior agreement is necessary;
monitoring expenditure made on behalf of county, unitary, and district councils during the incident;
collating invoices with expenditure;
supporting claims for compensation;
providing the Management Team with a summary of expenditure on request;
monitoring the levels of deployed resources at the various locations;
recovering or re-deploying resources as they become surplus to requirements at the various sites; and
informing the Technical Team of any resource shortfalls.

Media and Public Relations Team
J.17 The team should consist of local authority press officers together with an MCA information/public relations officer.

J.18 The Media and Public Relations Team (MAPRT) are responsible for:

preparing media briefings in consultation with the Management Team;
arranging media interviews in consultation with the members of the Management Team;
managing the media briefing room, established outside the confines of the SRC; and
ensuring that the briefing room supplies regular media briefing notices.

J.19 A public help-line may be established, depending on the circumstances and scale of the incident, to handle calls from the public. The decision to set up a help-line will be taken by the Management Team and responsibility for putting it in place will rest with the MAPRT. It is unlikely that the MAPRT will have the resources to staff such a help-line and it is recommended that appropriately trained call-handlers be provided from a separate source. Consideration should be given as to whether local members of the voluntary sector could be utilised for this task.

J.20 Call-handlers operating the help-line should refer offers of assistance, including equipment and products, to the MCA’s Marine Emergency Information Room in Southampton – telephone number +44 (0)23 8032 9445. Offers will then be forwarded to the appropriate response centre and copied to the MEIR in Southampton.

Information and Administration Team
J.21 The information and administration team consists of local authority staff that are responsible for the general day to day running of the SRC and the provision of administrative support to all functional teams.

J.22 The team is responsible for:

the dissemination of message traffic and information into, within and out of the SRC;
log keeping of message traffic and information into, within and out of the SRC;
providing and maintaining communication links within the SRC;
arranging appropriate IT support and resources for all functional teams;
detailed minute taking during the Management and Technical Team discussions;
filing messages, minutes and records for future reference and compensation claims;
logging and updating of information boards and operational maps; and
providing catering and security to the SRC.

The involvement of other local authorities
J.23 Where pollution affects more than one local authority, each should be represented in the SRC by an identified liaison officer. They should participate in meetings of the Management Team as necessary.

J.24 The specific tasks of the liaison officers should be:

to maintain links with their local authorities;
to provide information to the Technical Team concerning individual locations within their authorities (in particular, information which would affect the formulation of strategy);
to collaborate with the Technical Team, to agree the strategy for dealing with pollution at the affected sites and the level of resources to be allocated to the various locations;
to collaborate with the Procurement Team in procuring, marshalling and dispatching resources to the affected sites;
to inform authorities of the agreed strategy and the resources allocated to the various affected sites;
to arrange reception of these resources at the point of use in collaboration with the Procurement Team; and
to monitor progress of operations within their individual authorities.

J.25 Affected ports and harbours should also provide liaison officers. The specific tasks of the liaison officers should be:

to maintain links with their harbour authority;
to provide information to the Technical Team concerning individual locations within their harbours (in particular, information relevant to the strategy);
to collaborate with the Technical Team, to agree the strategy at the affected sites and the level of resources to be allocated to the various locations;
to collaborate with the Procurement Team in procuring, marshalling and dispatching resources to the affected sites;
to inform their harbours of the agreed strategy and the resources allocated to the various affected sites;
to arrange reception of these resources at the point of use in the collaboration within the Procurement Team; and
to monitor progress of operations within their individual harbours.

⁴⁶ In England and Wales, EA and, in Scotland, SEPA will have a role to play in regulating sites for temporary storage and treatment and where appropriate, ensuring speedy licensing or registration of exemptions of appropriate waste recycling or disposal facilities. back

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