City Centre Evacuation and Zoning Map

Greater Manchester Police, in conjunction with Manchester City Council, have initiated an updated and vastly improved priority alert scheme for the city centre to support the City Centre Zoning Map. This alert scheme is provided by a company called 'Vocal' and is basically a messsaging platform which will inform you, within seconds of the vital details of any incident in the City Centre.

The scheme has been introduced to provide live information from the Police to all the people who are registered.  Messages on the scheme can be sent via SMS text messaging to mobile phones, e-mail or to pagers.

Messages issued by the Police will inform you of:

• The details of the incident
• The location and which zone it is in
• The Zones that need to be evacuated
• Sectors to be evacuated at a large scale incident
• Updated information on the situation
• Information (if necessary) on the recovery phase
• Details of when it is safe to return to zones/sectors
• Detail of any security arrangements that may be in place

The primary use of this priority alert scheme is to warn and inform the residents and organisations in the city centre of any alert or incident in the area. It will assist the Police to manage the incident and prompt a speedy self-evacuation of the affected zones. The scheme will also be used to provide information as the situation progresses, helping to speed up the recovery phase and the return to 'normality'.

The scheme enables the Police to send messages to:

• All subscribers to the scheme
• Premises within the Sectors
• Premises within the individual and/or multiple zones
• Individual companies (on receipt of specific intelligence)
• Businesses such as hotels, retail, pubs, and clubs etc (on specific intelligence)

It is recommended that there should be a minimum of one Priority Alert Scheme subscriber in each building in the area.  Building Managers, Bomb or Fire Evacuation Wardens, Security Staff and other key personnel could be appropriate.

Information on joining the priority alert scheme can be found:

• on the website: http://www.warnandinform.com/
• or by contacting Vocal Communications on: 0870 727 2709

You can download the Manchester City Centre Zoning Map or obtain hard copies by e-mailing emergency.planning@manchester.gov.uk with your name, postal address and how many copies you require.  Please note that the map is available in a large wall-chart scale or in a handy wallet size format, so please also state your preference.