Preston Emergency Notification System

Lancashire Police, in conjunction with Preston City Council have launched the Preston Emergency Notification System (PENS) for Preston city centre.

The scheme is managed by Preston City Council and incorporates the iTex mobile and email messaging system.

The scheme will be operated by Lancashire Police staff who will send notification messages to those who have registered to join the scheme. Messages will be sent via SMS text messaging to mobile phones at no charge.

Messages issued by the Police at the time of an incident will inform you of the following :

• Brief details of the incident, with some restrictions on the content of information.
• The Zone affected or impacted by the incident. 
• Zones to be evacuated and where to go.
• Updated information on the situation.
• Information (if necessary) on the recovery phase.
• Details of when it is safe to return to Zones.
• Details of any security arrangements that may be in place.

The primary use of PENS is to warn and inform the residents and businesses in the City Centre of any potential incident in the area and thereby reduce the impact of such an event.

It will assist the Police in managing the area and can assist a speedy self-evacuation of the affected Zones. The scheme will also be used to provide information as the incident progresses, to speed up the recovery phase and return to normality.

The iTex element of the PENS scheme enables the Police to send messages to:

• All subscribers to the scheme.
• Individual or multiple Zones.
• Individual companies
• Business types such as hotels, retail, pubs, restaurants etc.

PENS allows the recipient businesses to decide who are the most appropriate senior staff to receive messages and initiate their building evacuation plan.

Building managers, fire or bomb evacuation wardens, security staff and other key nominated Officers can be placed on the Preston Emergency Notification Scheme.