LESSONS have still to be learned from a series of serious incidents in a York town, a local councillor has claimed.

Plans were put in place to ensure City of York Council would coordinate emergency situations following an explosion in Haxby in February 2016, but Haxby Cllr Tony Richardson claimed problems were still evident during the recent fire at York Housing Association property Jubilee Court.

However, council bosses have defended their response and highlighted what action was taken.

Cllr Richardson said that despite assurances that an emergency number would be available to all councillors for such occasions, he was eventually forced to try the county council’s adult social care team, claiming nobody at City of York Council was available.

He said: “We’re back to lessons learned about the importance of getting information as soon as possible to the relevant people, to get the best provision and protection in place for the residents, because that’s what it’s about. We need to know what we need to do and what is being done, who can help. But none of that is in place. We still have this gap between the authorities and councillors and the council.”

Cllr Richardson said the emergency officers “certainly weren’t there when I was there”, and by the time he had left, accommodation had been found for the remaining residents with their families.

When a fire is reported at a residence such as the care home, an alert is automatically sent to CYC, but Cllr Richardson said that email did not appear to have been seen until the following morning.

He said: “It appears just to be manned in office hours in which case we haven’t got an emergency system. I was led to believe we would have out of hours cover by the senior director, should something happen, but it seems to be a mystery as to who that is and how they are implementing things."

But James Gilchrist, assistant director of transport, highways and environment, said the authority had been alerted to the fire when it was reported, and the “emergency planning processes was executed robustly and smoothly and in tandem with Haxby’s community emergency plan”.

Mr Gilchrist said: “The council's duty emergency planner did attend site wearing hi-viz”, and the Major Incident Response Team (MIRT) were put on standby".

He said: “Haxby’s plan has been developed in partnership with the parish council and our emergency planning team, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. The parish council opened the Memorial Hall as part of this plan.The fire service on this occasion did not require the council’s attendance. Despite the offer of mutual aid to Yorkshire Housing they confirmed their business continuity plans were sufficient and did not require our attendance.On this occasion however, the councils duty emergency planner did attend site wearing hi-viz. As part of the council’s rest centre plan the Major Incident Response Team (MIRT) were put on standby. We offered Yorkshire Housing mutual aid and use of our sheltered housing schemes and we are providing longer-term temporary accommodation for four residents.”

“We encourage councillors to play an active role in such occasions which obviously impact upon their community and we have recently provided refresher training for councillors. This incident proves the strength of community resilience and the importance of business continuity plans which Yorkshire Housing implemented in a positive and professional way.”