Exercise Paddock set to test Cheshire emergency services' resilience

Cheshire Resilience Forum partner agencies are staging a live exercise to practise their response to an incident at Chester Racecourse.

The racecourse, on New Crane Street, will be the focus for Exercise Paddock, a simulated exercise on Tuesday 18th November, with a number of emergency service vehicles in attendance.

Including participants from Cheshire West and Chester Council, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, Cheshire Police, Chester Racecourse and North West Ambulance Service, the exercise will test the multi-agency response to a significant incident involving a large number of casualties on a busy race day. 

Running from 10:00 to 14:00, the exercise will include representatives from the emergency services and partner agencies, along with volunteer actors from the University of Chester playing racegoers and casualties.

During the week leading up to the exercise, participating agencies will be reassuring residents and visitors that the emergency response is simulated and not a response to real-life incident.

Exercise Paddock has been planned for several months and is not a response to recent events in Cambridgeshire and Manchester.