Community Response Plan
Community Response Plan for Civil Emergencies
Derbyshire County Council Emergency Response Planning Team is based in Matlock, approximately an hour’s drive away from New Mills and they maintain a 24 hour round the clock state of readiness to tackle emergencies.
Fine – leave it them – we are covered you might think. But what happens in a really big emergency? They can’t be everywhere at once immediately.
That is why we need to have some input and some supporting plans in place, to link into the High Peak and Derbyshire County Councils plans and this is why I am gathering information for this
I would like to tell you about the role the DCC Emergency Planning Team plays in coping with Environmental and other disasters and as our climate seems to be changing we will have to adapt to meet its excesses.
Recent Examples i.e. Chesterfield floods. Wren’s Nest Fire.
The earthquake some of us felt which in other areas caused quite a lot of damage elsewhere and houses had to be checked to ensure their chimneys were safe to occupy
All these led to people being temporarily and some long-term homeless and in need of support from their community
It is the need to look after people temporarily, the need to provide support, food drink, rest for them and also for the emergency teams dealing with the disasters that I want you to consider – especially – consider doing it in the dark in the middle of the night!
In an Incident
The Emergency Services will have their hands full dealing with the crisis
The Derbyshire County Council Emergency Planning Team will we hope be on the way to us
Our role is to start setting things up ready for their arrival, for example contact the key holders of halls to get them to open up
Then to Contact people and find food, drink and someone to cook it - warmth lighting – could need generators – medical personnel possibly
The list is endless….
and to have ready the lists of the phone numbers of places and people that the emergency team may need.
That’s what we have to do for our community – it’s like insurance we hope we never need to use it!
Some of the things we need to identify locally to go into the plan will be:
* Designated list of assembly points – halls around the area
* Coordinators to work with the emergency teams, cascade information & alert people
* Identify hazards and threats (e.g. storage places for acetylene gas in case of fire in nearby building, flight path for Ringway)
* Identify resources, human and mechanical (e.g. medical & first aid experience, welding equipment, drinking water supplies, generators, food & drink retailers)
* Location of vulnerable people who may need assistance
* Key-holders and contact numbers for whichever of the above are relevant
The lists of these are potentially comprehensive – data protection is considered and inclusion is voluntary, the information is kept securely by a very limited number of people, who alert others
I need your help to feed information through to me to go into the plan
