Submarine service helping Peterborough residents during coronavirus lockdown

The Royal Navy’s Submarine Service is playing a vital role in assisting landlocked authorities - including Peterborough City Council -deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
Simon CartwrightSimon Cartwright
Simon Cartwright

Navy teams have been helping at the Cambridgeshire Countywide Hub, which is offereing help and support to residents during lockdown.

Simon Cartwright, Chief Petty Officer in the Royal Navy’s Submarine Service, said: “Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic I was an instructor for an organisation known as Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST), preparing submarines for pending deployments. I have served my country for almost 18 years and I continue to do so to assist in the response phase, leading into the recovery phase for the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“As part of the MoD’s response and contribution to the COVID-19 pandemic, military planners have been deployed all around the UK in order to assist the Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) in dealing with planning operations.

“I have been a part of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough LRF for almost four weeks now. I began my work setting up the food distribution hub, supplying food to people on the shielded list. Considering we were starting from scratch and building this operation up from the ground up we had our work cut out for us! In the proceeding two weeks we managed to secure a warehouse, get it fit for purpose, risk assessed, racks fitted and filled with food for distribution. This was a tremendous achievement all involved and a large step towards sustainability. The warehouse then became dual purposed with the delivery of PPE for distribution to a multitude of health care facilities.

“I have recently shifted my focus from the logistical efforts to the recovery group and I look forward to working with this new team and taking the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough communities back to normality.”