The Gordon District Council Emergency Centre at Inverurie in Aberdeenshire was built in 1982 in the basement of the council offices and although still used from time to time by the emergency planning team it is now mainly used for IT training having been modified for this purpose in 1992. Entrance to the bunker is down a short flight of stairs from the car park indicated by a sign on a lamp post pointing down to ‘The Bunker’.
At the bottom of the stairs is a wooden door and beyond that a steel blast door which, along with the other blast doors in and out of the bunker, was permanently fixed in the open position in 1992. Inside the blast door is the decontamination room with the shower still in place but the drain grille carpeted over, there is a second open blast door at the far end and two replacement wooden doors into the plant room. The generator and ventilation trunking are still in place but the filters are in the adjacent store room which can only be accessed from the control room. The ventilation system was upgraded in 1992.
Beyond the second blast door the corridor turns left into the control room which is in the centre of the bunker. At this point is a small hatch looking into the plant room. Originally the control room had a concertina partition that could divide the room into two but this was fixed in place in 1992. All the other rooms in the bunker are accessed from the control room which still has a 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey map of Aberdeenshire on one wall. It has tables and chairs arranged in a square and at one end a number of easy chairs. There are two supporting concrete columns in the room.
This part of the room (which could originally have been partitioned off) acts as a rest room being adjacent to a serving hatch into the kitchen. The kitchen has a White Rose cooker, stainless steel sink, water heater and a kitchen unit with cupboards and drawers. Adjacent to the kitchen is a short corridor leading to a blast door and steps up into the offices above. Next to the corridor is a small room now used for storage and next to that is the unisex toilet with a shower, two cubicles and two wash basins. Adjacent to the toilet is a room now used for storage of files in Dexion racks but this was probably originally the dormitory. On the far wall there is a small blast door and beyond that a ladder up to the emergency hatch beside the car park. The controllers room is on the opposite side of the kitchen; it has a window looking into the control room. There is still a 1:50,000 map of Aberdeenshire on the wall but the room is now used for storage.
Opposite the controllers room is the former communications room which is now used as an office and next to that is the former Scientific Advisors room, now used as a store. The final room, adjacent to the plant room but accessed from the control room was designated a store in 1992. An SX2000 ECN (Emergency Communications Network) unit is located here and it appears to be still functioning. There is surprisingly a window in this room. As this does not appear in the list of alterations made in 1992 it is assumed that the window has always been there which makes a mockery of the blast and fallout protection given by the entrance blast doors.
Those taking part in the visit were Nick Catford, Robin Ware, Keith Ward and Robin Cherry, Ward & Caroline Westwater.
