| AdminHistory | In March 1938 the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) Committee was formed. Unlike its temporary predecessor (see BCC/1/EA), this was a full standing committee, comprising twelve members of the Council, excluding the Lord Mayor. Its functions were to exercise the duties of the Council as stated in the provisions of the Air Raid Precautions Act of 1937, namely to draw up formal plans for air-raid precautions and submit them to the Council and Home Office, then putting them into effect where necessary. To assist them, the committee immediately appointed a co-ordinating Air Raids Officer, who headed the Air Raids Precautions Department.
The objectives of the committee were, like its predecessor, to consider all aspects of air raid precautions, including civilian warning system, public information, wardens, emergency lighting, evacuation, fire brigade and policing, casualty treatment, emergency supplies and the maintenance of essential public services. The committee immediately set about identifying public buildings, such as baths, hospitals and schools were first-aid and decontamination centres could be set-up and looking at precautions in schools and general public awareness. It also appointed specialist sub-committees for planning and operating those vital aspects mentioned.
After the Munich crisis in September 1938, preparations for distributing gas masks, the digging of trenches and the establishment of first-aid posts was not only underway, but indeed authorised by the Home Office. Further, auxiliary nurses, firemen and Air Raid Wardens were enlisted, other Council departments, such as Health and Public Assistance, began to stock up on blankets, sheets and pillows and the committee was looking at schemes for emergency water to be fed from Bartley Reservoir into the canal system for firefighting.
In February 1939 the committee gave the go-ahead for the first bomb-proof shelters to be constructed, and in March, not only were the boundaries for evacuation zones planned, but an Emergency Committee was requested to be appointed by the Home Office in order to operate the civil defence policies during war time (see BCC/1/CL). By May, a list of school children to be evacuated was drawn up. In June, the Civil Defence Act made any civil defence equipment that had been issued by the government free of charge, but still government property by law. This included all respirators and shelters (also required to be provided under the Act), even those issued before the Act; fines could be imposed upon anyone not taking proper care of a mask whilst it was in their care. The committee was fully mobilised when the Second World War broke out in September 1939, and thousands of children were evacuated, the Food Committee was established and the Auxiliary Fire Service was launched (see BCC/1/CK/5 Auxiliary Fire Service Sub-Committee).
Despite the early inactivity of the Luftwaffe, by February 1940 the committee was amassing a fleet of ambulances, dealing with the problems of flooding in many underground shelters, undertaking programmes of service shelter construction for those areas where digging-in was not an option, and organising the Auxiliary Fire Service. Enemy inactivity ended with the first raids on Birmingham between the 8 and 16 August 1940.
During the period 1941 to 1944 the committee co-ordinated the work of the plethora of sub-committees assigned to their specific roles, such as fire and warden organisation, shelter construction, casualty and air raid after-care services, and the setting up of the British Restaurants and works programmes to make buildings safe. In view of its changing role (not just air raid protection), and as a response to the Lord Mayor’s request to form a separate consultative body to liaise with voluntary civil defence organisations, the committee changed its name to the Civil Defence Committee in February 1942.
With the end of the European war in May 1945, the committee began to organise the disposal of excess equipment and stores, offering it for sale to the public, ex-service men and even prisoners of war, or transfer to other Council departments. The committee also began to organise the collection of Anderson shelters and the removal of blast walls from public buildings. In May 1947, the Civic Restaurants Act required the setting up of a dedicated committee, which was in fact done in November of that year, and the British Restaurants were transferred to this new Catering and Entertainments Committee, which eventually was responsible for school meals and the like.
With the onset of the Cold War, and the threat of nuclear attack, civil defence was not abandoned and a new Act was put into force in 1948 which, although not statutory requirements, outlined civil defence requirements should they be needed. Shelter collection continued into the 1950s and the committee maintained the Civil Defence Corps, keeping records of active and reserve members. A new system was introduced, whereby the City of Birmingham was split into three zones; E1, E2 and E3. Each zone had several sections, each with several sector posts and subsections.
This system was maintained until the government was faced by a major financial crisis during 1967 - 1968. As part of the initiatives to economise imposed at that time, it was announced that civil defence was to be put on a care and maintenance basis. As a result, the Civil Defence Corps were disbanded, and the Civil Defence Committee was ceased to be operational; its duties passed to the General Purpose Committee (see BCC/1/AG). In 1974, the West Midlands County Council took over the responsibility for civil defence, and after its disbandment in 1986, the West Midlands Fire and Civil Defence Authority was appointed. |