New Dimension programme

The New Dimension programme, sometimes referred to as the New Dimension or New Dimensions, was started by the Department for Communities and Local Government in the UK, for fire and rescue services in England and Wales, following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. It has provided equipment, training and standardised procedures to deal with terrorist attacks and major environmental disasters.[1][2] By July 2004, the New Dimension programme had provided £56 million to various projects; a further £132 million was promised for the period up to 2007.[1]

New Dimension vehicles of Avon Fire and Rescue Service

The New Dimension programme operates at a national, regional and local level, and while it does not apply specifically to Scotland, a Fire and Rescue Service circular, published in 2007 noted that: "Officials in the Welsh Assembly Government and the Scottish Executive agree in principle that the general terms of the Mutual Aid Protocol should apply 'cross-border' between Scotland, England (and Wales)."[3] New Dimension provides a co-ordinated approach across the emergency services, and local authority emergency planners and it has been supported and promoted by the Chief Fire Officers Association.

In 2015, the Conservative government announced that a third of the vehicles allocated to the programme were to be withdrawn in 2016.[4]

Programme scope
A New Dimension Incident Response Unit operated by Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service

The New Dimension programme was part of Department for Communities and Local Government's fire resilience programme, which also included the FireLink and FiReControl projects. 318 New Dimension appliances, 238 of these being prime movers with removeable 'pods' and the remaining 80 being Incident Response Units equipped for decontamination, were supplied by Marshall Specialist Vehicles on MAN TGA chassis.[5] These were equipped with FireLink digital radios on delivery, creating a single wide area communications system across England, Wales and Scotland.[6]

The purpose of New Dimension is to provide information and guidance for fire and rescue services on emergency response to the following specific types of incident:

  • Terrorist chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats
  • Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents
  • Industrial and domestic accidents
  • Chemical spills and collapsed buildings
  • Natural disasters
  • Floods and earthquakes

The onus is on fire services to provide "New Dimension capability", and legislation for England, passed in April 2007, recognised a fire and rescue service's responsibilities for dealing with the above types of incident. The Fire and Rescue Services (Emergencies) (England) Order 2007 is a statutory instrument which requires that fire services make provision for dealing with CBRN incidents and structural collapse.[7] Funding from the New Dimension scheme has been used (as one example) to provide fire services with new specialist Urban Search and Rescue appliances and equipment. Previously, fire services were not specifically equipped to deal with largescale USAR incidents.

Vehicles part of New Dimension until scrapped in 2016:

  • Incident Response Unit
  • Detection, Identification, Monitoring
  • Prime Mover to carry pods
  • Urban Search and Rescue pod
  • High Volume Pump pod

Operational use

New Dimension appliances have been used in a number of roles since the scheme's creation. Notable uses include various floods such as the 2007 United Kingdom floods,[8] the Buncefield fire,[9][10] the Stockline Plastics factory explosion in Glasgow[11] and the 7 July 2005 London bombings.[12]

References
  1. "Introduction to the New Dimension project". Department for Communities and Local Government. Archived from the original on 19 May 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2007.
  2. Carden, George (11 September 2021). "East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service specialist equipment after 9/11". The Argus. Brighton. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  3. "Long Term Management of the New Dimension Capability". Department for Communities and Local Government. 14 May 2007. Archived from the original on 19 September 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2007.
  4. "Withdrawal of decontamination emergency vehicles 'risks security'". BBC News. 21 December 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  5. Wilcox, David (27 May 2004). "Ready for anything". Commercial Motor. Temple Press. pp. 64–65. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  6. "2nd Consultation Response to Fire Service Circular 16/2009 on the New Dimension Transfer of Ownership Agreement" (PDF). mfra.merseysidefire.gov.uk. Merseyside Fire Authority. 18 September 2009. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  7. "The Fire and Rescue Services (Emergencies) (England) Order 2007". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  8. "New Dimension – enhancing the Fire and Rescue Services' capacity to respond to terrorist and other large-scale incidents". National Audit Office. 31 October 2008. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  9. Matthews, Anthony (11 December 2021). "Timeline of Buncefield oil depot explosion in Hertfordshire". Watford Observer. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  10. "HVP theory in practice". Fire. Vol. 98, no. 1208. Teddington: Pavilion. March 2006. Retrieved 22 October 2022 – via General OneFile.
  11. Tague, Trevor (15 May 2004). "Prepared for a tragic task". Evening Chronicle. Newcastle upon Tyne. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  12. "The terrorist attacks of 7 July 2005" (PDF). FRS12. Central Office of Information. August 2005. p. 3. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
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