Four people have been awarded Commendations from Lancashire Police’s Chief Constable Chris Rowley for their efforts in keeping the county safe.

Ady Grant, Caroline Stuart, Katherine Bentley and Neil Williams were members of the Lancashire Resilience Forum and part of an exercise management group involved in a counter-terrorism exercise on Blackpool Promenade. 

Exercise Goshawk, took place over three days in November 2022. It was the county’s largest major incident exercise, aimed at testing local plans and the emergency response to a terrorism threat.

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Members of the planning team were awarded commendations on 14 December for planning, exercising and learning from Exercise Goshawk to better prepare for a major incident of this type.

Chair of the Lancashire Resilience Forum General Purposes Group, Richard Robertshaw, said: “These Chief Constable’s Commendations recognise the multi-agency commitment shown by the Lancashire Resilience Forum to ensure the public remains as safe as possible and that we are fully prepared, and ready to respond to a major incident.

“Many multi-agency partners both local and national were involved at every stage of the exercise including emergency services, local authorities and the NHS.”

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Volunteer groups such as St John Ambulance, Rotary, British Red Cross and Victim Support also took part in the exercise. Local businesses practised hosting emergency centres, with over 300 public volunteers.

Richard Robertshaw continued: “The number of volunteers and venues, and the extended timeframe of the exercise, makes it the largest the county has ever done – something the planning team within the Lancashire Resilience Forum have, and absolutely should be commended for.”

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