Britain's biggest peacetime evacuation remembered - a year after a bomb was dug up in a Keyham garden
The wartime ordinance was eventually removed and taken to sea
It's a year to the day since an unexploded wartime bomb was found in a garden in Plymouth - leading to Britain's biggest peacetime evacuation.
It was eventually taken to sea and detonated - with thousands spending days in emergency accommodation as cordons were extended and altered whilst the Royal Navy decided how best to tackle the ordinance.
Councillor Sally Haydon says it was a huge operation, reflecting: “We evacuated 10,300 people and the number of properties was 4,200. We were able to accommodate 180 people through our hotels use and bed and breakfast.
“We were the first to have our Government alert in Plymouth and that really worked and then the other thing we also did was a postcode tracker and that was really good – because some people would have got up in the morning and gone off to work and not realised they wouldn’t be coming home for tea that night,”
The Cabinet Member for Community Safety says they continue to keep an emergency response plan under review – and the authority has also been invited to speak at conferences about its role during the evacuation.
She said: “People are very interested in how we were able to manage it and be successful.
"For us keeping that plan updated is very important. Plymouth was hit very badly in the Second World War and we know this isn’t going to be the last time.”
After the ordinance was removed local firms helped restore gardens for neighbours and there was widespread praise for the Royal Navy team who removed and disposed of the ordinance.