Guildford exercise to test major incident response

Surrey Police will team up with its emergency service partners in a live-action exercise in Guildford tomorrow (11 July).

The exercise will test the service response to a major incident. The public should be aware and not alarmed by the ‘live-play’ Exercise Comet, which will take place close to Guildford railway station on 11 July from 10am until 2.30pm.

Ahead of the exercise, Sergeant Olly Brown, of Exercise and Testing, Operations Command, said: “We should exercise and challenge our staff, processes, and systems in all manner of incident types.

“No agency hopes to ever have to deal with a scenario like Exercise Comet, but by bringing together the people who would actually be responding, we are all able to understand each other more effectively which ultimately saves lives.”

Surrey Police’s response is being run by the Emergency Planning team, with support from other units such as Exercise and Testing, Response and Training.

The exercise will involve partners from Surrey Local Resilience Forum (SLRF) testing their plans and multi-agency incident response. Joining Surrey Police are SECAmb, British Transport Police, Surrey Fire and Rescue, Network Rail, Surrey County Council, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford Borough Council, Environment Agency, Rail Accident Investigation Branch, South Western Railway, Great Western Railway, Avanti West Coast, the Rail Delivery Group and Surrey 4×4 Volunteers.

The exercise will mean a large emergency service presence in the area with around 300 responders attending to around 100 casualties, provided by the Casualties Union.

The Surrey Local Resilience Forum (LRF) is a collaborative partnership involving local emergency services, councils, health and other partners, all working together to ensure Surrey is well-prepared for emergencies.

Surrey LRF’s role is to plan and prepare for local emergencies. It identifies potential risks, specific to Surrey, and produces plans to either prevent or mitigate the impact of any incident on communities. You can find a list of risks within Surrey and how you can ensure you can prepare for any future emergencies, by visiting Surrey County Council website.