What is the NSW Government‘s Emergency Plan for Sydney’s CBDs?
Background
The Sydney Metropolitan Area has several large central business districts with the two most significant being the Sydney and the North Sydney Central Business Districts (“the CBD”).
The Sydney CBD Emergency Subplan was originally developed in 2005 to detail the special control and coordination arrangements for an emergency in the Sydney and North Sydney CBD which may involve evacuation of all or part of the CBD’s.
The plan was reviewed in early 2015 and is now called the The Sydney and North Sydney Central Business District (CBD) Evacuation Management Subplan – or the Sydney CBD Evacuation Plan (SCBDEP) in short.
The plan is available at www.emergency.nsw.gov.au
Aim of the Plan
The plan focuses on the primary evacuation points in the CBD, escalation processes, communication channels, directions to the public and alternative transport arrangements. It has been developed to take into account a broad section of the community including residents, schools, community groups, property owners and managers, commuters and businesses.
The plan caters for the worst case scenario of an evacuation of a large section or all of the CBD area combined with a loss or major disruption to our normal transport services.
Key revisions to the Plan
New expanded Zones. The subplan now encompasses an area of approximately 9.8 square kilometres: Sydney CBD at 8.4 km2 and North Sydney CBD at 1.4 km2. The expanded zones now impact approximately 700,000 people. See maps here.
Assembly areas replace safety sites. The safety sites are no longer operational within the new plan. Instead there are identified assembly areas which are listed here.
