A TRAINING exercise on Harwich beach will test the emergency services’ response to a serious oil spill.

Up to 50 people will be working together in a bid to deal with a significant spillage as quickly as possible.

Booms and other equipment will be used to cope with the problem and carry out a clean-up of the affected area.

The exercise is planned for March 9, and will give those involved the chance to put their emergency procedures to the test – should a real incident occur.

The emergency services, local authorities, ports and harbours from Essex and Suffolk will take part alongside counter pollution contractors in the seven hour long scenario.

The refresher training exercise is all part of a two-day beach supervisors training course being run by the Maritime Coastguard Agency and hosted by Tendring Council.

Tendring Council emergency planning officer Catherine Boyer-Besant said the training exercise will be made up of a day spent in the classroom followed by the day on the beach.

“It gives everybody the opportunity to work as a team to test out exactly how they would react and cope with the various issues should an incident occur,” she said.

“The classroom work will be followed by a strenuous exercise outdoors which will be as near to the real thing as we can possibly make it.”

A similar training exercise was run on Clacton’s Martello Beach in October 2013.