 INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Breckland Council's Emergency Planning Service. The Council has an important role to play in the event of an emergency occurring within the District or indeed the County.
Following the introduction of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, Local Authorities were given new responsibilities for Emergency Planning and Business Continuity. Should an emergency occur, Breckland Council must be able to respond to support people and property and to maintain its services.
Our Emergency Planning Service works in partnership with the Emergency Services, neighbouring councils, Norfolk County Council and NHS Norfolk to ensure that we are prepared to respond and assist the communities we serve in times of need.
In general, in order to prepare and respond to emergencies in the Breckland district, the Council's responsibilities include:
- Maintaining a state of preparedness so that the Council can provide an appropriate response, both during and after, in the event of an emergency;
- Provide warnings and information to the public;
- Continuing to provide critical services to the public in the event of an emergency occurring; and
- Working with emergency services, neighbouring local authorities and other agencies to increase resilience.
The Council is also able to provide advice to businesses with regard to Business Continuity Planning. For more information visit our pages on Business Continuity.
None of us know when an emergency will happen, what the cause or the scale of such an emergency may be. The ultimate objective of the Emergency Planning Service is to minimise the impact of disaster on the day-to-day lives of the community and the environment and to aid and assist in the recovery process and return to normality.
PREPARE – RESPOND - RECOVER
PREPARE
The Council has detailed plans and procedures in place to deal with requests from the emergency services for assistance in major emergencies within its boundaries.
Emergencies, by their nature, are just that and cannot normally be predicted but may result from:
- Severe weather
- Fires
- Chemical incidents
- Transportation accidents
- Natural disasters
- Utility failure
Therefore in an emergency we must be able to provide a flexible, efficient and effective response.
RESPOND
Initial contact is made through the Civil Contingencies Officer who will then make a series of decisions about the emergency, if necessary an Incident Management Team will be formed. Senior Officers from Norfolk County Council may join the Incident Management Team for the duration of the event, but ultimately responsibility lies with the Chief Executive of Breckland Council.
The Council's Emergency Actions - Specific tasks carried out by the Council in an emergency include:
KEEPING THE PUBLIC INFORMED – PROVIDING THE LATEST NEWS AND ADVICE DURING AN EMERGENCY
The Council’s Emergency Planning Service will provide information regarding emergency incidents that occur within the District and issue any relevant advice to members of the general public in the affected area.
RECOVER
The recovery phase will contain all those activities that provide an effective return to normality. There is no one model response to disaster recovery, the response will need to vary just as the effects and nature of the disaster will vary.
Breckland Council's responsibilities
When there is an emergency many organisations work together. Depending on the type of incident our responsibilities for the community include:
- Providing Evacuation or Reception Centres for the community involved
- Providing emergency feeding
- Providing emergency transport
- Providing and operating effective communications
- Co-ordinating the Council’s media response with that of other responders
- Keeping elected members informed so they can participate in decision making on behalf of the local community
- Co-ordination of support from the voluntary agencies
- Provision of environmental health advice
If require further advice or information you can contact Breckland Council's Civil Contingencies Officer on 01362 656870 or email emgplan@breckland.gov.uk or click on the link to our Advice & Assistance pages.
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BUSINESS CONTINUITY
The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 also requires Local Authorities to have effective Business Continuity Plans in place so that the Authority can continue to provide key services to the public in times of emergency and to promote business continuity to local businesses and voluntary organisations in order to promote economic resilience with the Breckland distric.
Please follow the link to the Business Continuity pages for further information and advice.
You can access further information relating to Emergency Planning on the following links
The Normit (Norfolk Major Incident Team) Website. Normit is a partnership that promotes emergency management across Norfolk.
The Norfolk County Council Website.
Preparing for emergencies www.pfe.gov.uk
Link to the Norfolk Prepared - Norfolk Resilience Forum website at www.norfolkprepared.gov.uk
UK Resilience http://www.ukresilience.info
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