A CRUCIAL meeting to help local organisations respond more effectively in an emergency is to take place this week.

During last summer's floods, which caused devastation across Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire, the emergency services and local authorities swung into action.

They were joined by legions of workers from several organisations, including the Armed forces, St John Ambulance 4X4 Response and local clergy, all of whom worked tirelessly round the clock.

While local agencies have plans which dovetail together and have trained together to respond to emergencies such as flooding, the meeting, to be held on Wednesday, will help them achieve a better understanding of the response of national utility organisations such as BT and the Highways Agency.

"The aim of the day is to help us to understand more clearly the arrangements that the providers of national utility services have in place to ensure that they are able to maintain essential services during times of emergency," said Paul West, Chief Constable of West Mercia Constabulary and chairman of the West Mercia Local Resilience Forum.

"At a local level, we have very well-rehearsed plans, which are activated when an emergency is declared. We train for these events on an ongoing basis and understand how all member agencies of the Local Resilience Forum will respond.

"However, we need to make sure that we are also working effectively and efficiently with national utility organisations so that we understand how the various organisations will respond so that we can ensure the best collective action is taken on behalf of the residents we are here to serve."

Wednesday's event has been organised by the West Mercia Local Resilience Forum - which represents the emergency services, local councils and other agencies which would respond during an emergency - and is to be held at Ludlow Racecourse.

"This is a key day for emergency planning across the whole of the West Mercia region and coincides with National Business Continuity Week," said Mr West.

"This event will provide a very timely opportunity to learn from each other and to explore what the response of the utility companies will be and what resources they will have available during an emergency so that the disruption to members of the public and businesses in these three counties is kept to an absolute minimum."