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DisasterMan
casualties in World War I. The house and its 350 acre estate were purchased
from Joseph Love, a Durham coal magnate for only £12,500. The fi rst civil
defense course at The Hawkhills, Easingwold was in December 1937, so
that the College celebrated its 50
th
anniversary in 1987.
The Hawkhills became the Home Offi ce's only Civil Defence College in
1968 when the two other civil defense schools were closed. In 1989, the
Home Secretary reviewed the subject of civil emergencies and decided
to rename the College `The Emergency Planning College,' and modifi ed
its responsibilities to address questions of peacetime disasters as well
as wartime emergency civil defence planning. The Emergency Planning
College has a Principal, Vice- Principal, College Secretary, three Programme
Directors, ten Study Leaders, and a Librarian. The College will present about
thirty different residential seminars and courses in 1994-1995 as listed in
the Appendix.
After arriving in London, I took a fast train from King's Cross railway
station to York. The College provided transportation to The Hawkhills which
is situated ten miles north of York and about one mile south of the village of
Easingwold. The original country house has been added to and modernized
so that it now has residential study/bedroom accommodations for about
70 on site and conference facilities for 125 or so. In addition to a gym,
weight room, croquet, etc there are two woodland jogging paths marked
by red or white arrows. I saw a number of rabbits and even a fox on my
walks.
Seminar Participants
The seminar at the Emergency Planning College, Easingwold that I
attended was for `elected members.' Apparently all elected members are
eligible to attend but preference is given to chairmen (convenors) or vice
chairmen of councils, leaders or deputy leaders of principal political parties,
and chairmen or vice chairmen of relevant committees. The participants
at this seminar included: the Deputy Mayor, Salisbury District Council,
Wiltshire; Vice Chairman, Stroud District Council, Gloucestershire; two
members of the Orkney Islands Council; Deputy Mayor, Coleraine Borough
Council, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland; member of City of Dundee
District Council, Tayside, Scotland; etc.
When I attended the seminar at the Emergency Management Institute,
Emmitsburg, Maryland, the participants came from all over the States and
consisted of teams of two people - the local chief administrator (Mayor,