DISASTER plans have been put in place to protect Provan Gas Works and two whisky bottling plants, as part of Glasgow’s plan for a major emergency, it has been revealed.

Glasgow City Council has published its civil contingencies plan, detailing how services in the city will respond in the event of a major civil emergency.

The masterplan explains what is likely to happen in the event of a disease pandemic, major terrorist incident or catastrophic weather event.

Council chief executive Anne Marie O’Donnell says Glasgow has already experienced significant incidents including flooding, fires, collapsed buildings, fuel disruption at Grangemouth and acts of terrorism such as the Glasgow Airport attack. Services “must always be in a position to respond flexibly and effectively,” Ms O’Donnell says.

Different council departments and arms-length bodies such as Cordia and Glasgow Life will have specific roles to play, according to the council Civil Contingencies Plan.

The document says two training exercises are held a year to plan for potential crisis on a larger scale, using a range of “gaming” scenarios described as serialised tabletop, real time tabletop, or live play. Key strategic objectives will be to preserve lives, prevent an incident escalating, protect property and return to normality as soon as possible.

The only specific locations mentioned in the document are Provan Gas Works, the Beam Global maturation plant in the city’s East End, and the John Dewar bottling plant in Parkhead. They are identified as ‘upper tier hazardous industrial sites’.

The education department is told schools could have to be closed and opened for use as emergency centres, while educational psychologists will be asked to counsel those traumatised in any incident.

Social work staff will manage emergency centres, locate emergency accommodation if needed and support survivors.

Meanwhile, the council’s land and environmental services will be expected to provide equipment, vehicles and drivers, and be ready “if necessary” to make “appropriate arrangement ... for immediate internment or cremation of remains.”

The council also has plans for emergency mortuaries in the event of “intensive and extensive incidents resulting in mass fatalities”, and the plan points out that the Chief Registrar for Scotland will have to be informed if any one incident causes in excess of 50 deaths.

Police Scotland will treat any incident as a crime scene, unless it is clearly caused by a natural event, the document says.

While the council will work with the Scottish Government, the Fire and Rescue Service, Scottish Ambulance Service, NHS Scotland and Police Scotland it is also important the public help themselves, the city’s plan says.

“The immediate effect on a community of any disaster is an upsurge of community activity,” it adds.