A training company has plans to use a wood in Wakes Colne to train emergency services by staging simulated accidents and disasters.

Allied Medical Support already runs training simulations at its centre at Wakes Hall Business Centre.

Now it is asking Colchester Council for permission to use nearby woodland as a specialist training ground.

Steve Colmer, managing director, said the area could include an 80ft stretch of mock-up road, with a bus stop, a pedestrian crossing and lamp posts.

He said: “The aim is to improve training in pre-hospital care. We try to simulate incident scenes accurately.

“We want to build a short section of road to simulate car accidents, for which we have special cars with clip-on roofs, so we can train without having to keep cutting them up.

“The long-term aim is also to have a 20-yard railway track with carriages welded to it, to teach how to rescue people from the confined spaces under carriages.”

The site could also feature a pipe tunnel and collapsed buildings with rubble – all with the aim of providing a realistic setting for training emergency medical staff.

Mr Colmer added: “We have been running courses for a few years at derelict sites, including at the barracks in Colchester while they were under development, but sites are now built upon.

“We think it is very important to simulate the most realistic setting as possible, so we can put people training for these kinds of situations under real pressure.

“We need to bombard people’s senses during a mock rescue with sights, sounds, and smells. We need to simulate what people really have to go through.”

It is thought the site would be the only one of its kind in the region.

The application has the backing of the police, fire service and St John Ambulance.