It occurred to me that this was the same problem as in New Orleans and Brisbane, or with any other large Metropolitan area, suffering a need for a large evacuation.

A possible scenario in this country would be a failure of the Thames barrier.

It occurred to me that any Government, worthy of that name would have a contingency plan for housing the refugee’s and handling the emergencies.

We seem to be set up to cope with small local situations but not for any situation that might require the housing of any significant numbers.

I, therefore, propose that we build an Emergency City.

The location would have to be central to the country, with good access and utilities laid on.

I believe Sheffield has a lot of brown site land, qualifies on most counts and is therefore my proposed location.

I propose that the housing should be in the nature of the prefabs used at the end of the Second World War, which were cheap, basic and comfortable.

They should be laid out in blocks, as per most American cities, with tunnels under the pavements for use by the utilities, so that the streets would not need to be continually dug up to access the utilities.

Connection points for the utilities would be laid to the inside of the border of the lots, so that alternative housing such as tents or caravans etc. could be used initially.

Some blocks would be set aside for services, such as admin, prison blocks, shopping malls, entertainment facilities etc.  Main Railway / Coach services would not enter the City but a Tube system or similar could be built on, later.

Below the City would be storage facilities such as those that exist at places like Burtonwood, near Warrington, which has (had) ration books for post-nuclear attack (!), distribution.

The initial cost would be large but the City could be built block by block, as funds became available

The City would need Maintenance and this could be provided in various ways.

Personnel would be needed to build the facilities and these could be associated with Government training schemes, whereby unemployed youngsters could be taught trade skills and auxiliary emergency services skills. Such trainees could either be roped in a real emergency or despatched home to free up needed accommodation.

If the Emergency City was set up in a dual role as a cheap Holiday centre, with suitable holiday features , such as indoor arena’s for various activities, this would provide a mechanism for keeping the City alive, self-financing and appealing to the General Public as a return on their taxes.

If facilities were provided at minimum profit margin, it would help staunch cash flow out of the Country by people holidaying abroad. It would give poorer members of Society an affordable holiday and it would allow the rich and snobbish to enjoy their leisure location’s without having to seek out remote locations abroad.

The beauty of this dual role would be that the holiday-makers could be returned to their homes with a promise of compensation for ruined holiday’s, for a minimal cost but freeing up large amounts of accommodation that was ready for use .

The Arena’s could serve as assembly locations/distribution points/emergency admin centre’s etc. and we could even have a nearby airfield to send out emergency supplies and personnel to cater for emergencies within other countries.