Saw newspaper report (with photograph) of the building of the Emergency Control Centre under Aberconway Council Offices, in a basement.
North Wales Weekly News - Thursday 01 March 1990
Also mentioned in Nick McCamley’s book “Cold War Secret Nuclear Bunkers: The Passive Defence of the Western World”
Details and exact location not confirmed.
Full transcription of the news report.
Eastern thaw, but no bunking By Mark Brittain DESPITE the Cold War thaw a local council are getting ready for the worst - with a bomb-proof underground shelter. The emergency control centre is being built on Government instructions in a basement underneath Aberconwy Council offices at Bodlondeb, Conwy. But council officers deny that the basement is being readied as a nuclear bunker in the event of a future war. They say the control centre is part of a peacetime emergency plan which the government has asked counties and districts to prepare. It used to be called wartime planning but the government has now changed that* said Aberconwy Chief Executive Mr John Davies. The Centre will be an operations room for any civil emergency requiring co-ordination by all emergency and local authority services. “But there’s no hiding the fact that in a situation where there was a nuclear attack it wouldn’t be much use having a control room above ground,” he added
(picture) The entrance to the bunker at Bodlondeb
Accident The Centre which can be manned by up to twelve people will have sleeping accomodation. communications and hold administrative records But Mr Davies stresses that the work won’t cost ratepayers a penny - the entire scheme is being funded by the Home Office In an large-scale emergency, such as a peacetime nuclear accident, officers from emergency services could control the incident from underground and liaise with other districts and counties in their centres, he said. “It won’t be permanently manned and if and when it is used depends on the type of emergency quite often the individual services can cope with specific incidents on their own. “But if you need a coordinated response then the Centre will be in place and ready to use.” Work on converting the existing basement at Bodlondeb is already well in hand with generators being installed and a new entrance being built on land behind the offices. This week no-one at the Home Office was available to comment on the cost of the project.
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