Responsibilities

We are responsible for ensuring the Council complies with the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. We work with all the Council Services and other emergency responders to identify potential risks, then prepare the Council in its ability to respond to Emergencies by liaising across the different services and preparing plans. We check with other agencies, such as the emergency services, and our neighbouring Councils to make sure that all of our plans fit well together. These plans are then exercised to ensure that they are practical and reflect what is likely to happen if an emergency occurs.

We are also responsible for ensuring that our own critical services can continue to operate during an emergency. We encourage local businesses to have business continuity plans.

Training and exercising

We organise training, emergency exercises and seminar events to ensure that Council staff and partner agencies are up to date with current emergency plans and ready to respond.

We also have a statutory responsibility to plan for incidents at "risk" sites in the area that fall under specific legislation such as Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH). 

Working together

We can't respond to any emergency on our own so we form strong partnerships with other emergency responders, local Councils, the Environment Agency and utility companies. By working together, planning together and exercising together we form a strong alliance. Being aware of how another agency works, and the responsibilities that they have are key to working together and being able to respond effectively in a major incident.

Recovery

After an incident, we will normally be the lead agency in the recovery process. The amount of time that it will take to recover from a major incident will be proportional to the scale of any damage to the community. Incidents such as flooding which can cause widespread devastation for the community could take many months to recover. Our recovery plan covers such scenarios.