It is normally the responsibility of the police to establish a RVP, which will be located away from the immediate scene of operations and is where multi-agency assets can be co-ordinated and marshalled prior to their attendance at the incident.
Due to the very nature of the response to a confirmed CBRN(e) incident, rendezvous points and marshalling areas need to be large enough to hold emergency responder resources which may be on or off-site and should be identified and agreed in the planning stage or in consultation with police through mobilising control at the time of the incident.
They should ensure that the designated area is safe for multi-agency partners to attend. Part of that process will usually entail a police search of the RVP and marshalling area for suspicious objects or devices. However, there may be occasions when the police are unable to undertake this task or when appliances already mobile to an incident are stopped or diverted by mobilising control, resulting in them moving to a location which has not been pre-identified and therefore not cleared by police.
The size and location of rendezvous points and marshalling areas are:
- Agreed by all attending agencies
- Far enough away from the immediate scene of operations, but close enough to be effective
- Large enough to contain fire and rescue service resources as well as other responding agencies
- Upwind and uphill from incident site if possible