Lord mayor thanks teams for help with Plymouth bomb

“Amazing community leadership”

The lord mayor of Plymouth has thanked city councillors for showing “amazing community leadership” during the incident in Keyham last month after a Second World War bomb was discovered in a garden.

It sparked one of the largest evacuations since the conflict, with 10,000 people moving from their properties over four days of disruption.

The 500kg German bomb found in St Michael Avenue was transported 1.4 miles through the city before being detonated at sea and ending events which had the whole of Plymouth on tenterhooks.

Thirty armed forces bomb disposal specialists were involved in the operation but many other organisations helped, including Dartmoor Rescue and the Red Cross, as well as volunteers and councillors.

Speaking at a Plymouth City Council meeting, lord mayor Mark Shayer (Con, Budshead) said the council was responsible for:

• Supporting the evacuation of 10,000 people
• Setting up and staffing a rest centre, serving 1,000 people over three days
• Supporting the military and implementing dozens of road closures
• Sourcing and arranging for over 300 tonnes of sand to be dropped into the area
• An online incident hub and 24/7 helpline
• A postcode tracker so people could see if they were being evacuated and utilising the government alert system – the first time the system has been used in emergency
• Arranging temporary accommodation for 180 households
• Supporting families, ensuring children were kept safe
• Working with six schools and nurseries in the cordon to make sure they were able to evacuate safely.

“Our thanks go to the officers of the council who worked around the clock with our partners to ensure a good outcome and our councillors who showed amazing community despite being impacted by the cordon,” said Cllr Shayer.

“I would like to thank our military personnel whose bravery was clearly shown through spent time assessing the device and driving it through our city – a level of risk it is hard for many to understand.”

He also praised the people of Keyham for their “forbearance and assistance they provided to each other” having been through the “terrible” events of two and a years ago when Jake Davison shot and killed five people in the community before turning the gun on himself.

The council has also been helping in the aftermath of the military operation when some damage was caused to properties.

This has included installing temporary fencing in gardens, offering one household a two-day deep cleaning service, paying for their carpet and sofa to be cleaned, offering vouchers to replace broken items and for food, repairing gutting and cleaning out blocked drains, fixing windows and offering to arrange the repair of a broken boiler.

Leader Cllr Tudor Evans (Lab, Ham) said whilst it was not the council’s role to pay for repairs to private properties following an emergency, Building Plymouth, a partnership led by the council made up of construction companies across the city, had offered its support at no cost to the residents or the council.

“This is another example of everyone coming together to show community spirit during an emergency,” he said. “When the chips are down, Plymouth has stepped up.”