Cups of tea and lots of patience were the order of the day for residents forced from their flats after yesterday’s car bomb.

Stuart Arnold reports.

RESIDENTS of Hartlepool’s Navigation Point – a harbourside area comprising modern built flats, bars and restaurants on the town’s Marina – gathered at a nearby council-run rest centre after they were evacuated as part of the police operation.

Most took the inconvenience in good spirts and praised the efforts of council staff to look after them.

A centre at Hartlepool’s Maritime Experience museum became their temporary home after police cleared the flats where a man – who had earlier died in a vehicle in the Headland area – lived.

Those at the rest centre were given wristbands and had to sign in and out.

Former BBC local radio presenter Stan Laundon, 67, was evacuated with his wife, Karen, also 67.

Mr Laundon said: “All of Navigation Point has been closed, the bars and restaurants.

A lot of people will get quite a shock when they return home.”

He praised the efforts of the local council in making sure residents were looked after.

He said: “They’ve been great. It has been well organised.

We had to register and give them our personal details and they said they would keep us informed.

“There is a midwife here for anyone who is pregnant, sandwiches and drinks, and games for the kids.”

Mrs Laundon said: “I had the dinner in the oven. You just don’t expect something like this to happen.”

At the cordon to the flats there were several emergency vehicles. Army personnel in combat fatigues were also seen later in the afternoon.

However, some people remained oblivious to the drama. One man could be seen walking his dog among the dozens of boats on the marina, yards away from the cordon.

And around the corner, a steady stream of people attended a health club and gym.

Alastair Smith is the assistant director of transportation and engineering at Hartlepool Borough Council, with responsibility for emergency planning.

He said he had received a call from a member of the authority’s emergency planning unit at 7.25am, following information from the police.

He said: “The information we had from the police was that there had been an incident with the potential for residents to be displaced and we immediately put an emergency action plan into place.

“We have set up a rest centre and been in touch with hoteliers and guesthouses to get an idea of what is available if people need accommodation overnight, and also spoke to the RSPCA in case people have pets.

“We have covered just about every angle you can imagine.

“We are well-prepared to react to situations like this. It is also the Hartlepool way to do it, with a lot of what we hope is goodwill.”

Resident Fintan Wardell, 43, who was among those at the rest centre, said: “It was my day off so I’d stopped in bed. There was a knock on my door but whoever it was, they did not announce themselves as the police so I did not answer.”

Mr Wardell said it was only when he left the building at 11am that he realised the area was cordoned off because of a police alert.

He said: “I don’t know any of my neighbours here.

“It is very quiet. Nobody disturbs you and you only really see people on the stairs.”

Baz Glennie, a 59-year-old lobster fisherman originally from Brighton, said he had only moved in a week ago.

He said: “Everyone has been fantastic today. We cannot do anything about this, it is just one of those things.

“The police have to be cautious if they are talking about bombs and things like that.”