Mark Bartlett, Civil Contingencies Officer with Lancaster City Council, has been working with community representatives at Sunderland Point to produce a Community Emergency Plan.
Sunderland Point, although part of the mainland, has an access road that is covered by the tide twice a day for much of the year and special measures are required to deal with emergencies there. The Point is also susceptible to flooding during high tides and is exposed to severe weather at certain times of the year. The community successfully applied for a DEFRA grant recently and this has been used to increase flood resilience for the houses there by issuing protective defences that can be fitted across doorways when flooding is threatened and taking some other measures such as the installation of drain valves.
At the same time Mark worked with a small team of residents to produce an emergency plan covering the agreed response to warnings of severe weather and possible flooding along with contributions from Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and North West Ambulance Service regarding the response to fires and medical emergencies.
Mark said "The community has been fully involved in the production of the plan from start to finish. It was a voluntary scheme but they recognised the benefits that it could potentially bring to have thought through actions in slow time and recorded contact telephone numbers than to be trying to find these in an emergency. We started with a template but the community chose the sections they wanted to include in the main document and those that they felt were not applicable to their circumstances so we didn't just complete the document for its own sake. Copies of the plan are now held by the community and also the police, fire service, ambulance service and coastguards as well as the council but I think the main benefit has been that we now know each other much better and we have a plan to talk to each other when warnings are given by the Met Office or Environment Agency rather than responding when problems arise. The plan is now in place for the winter and will be reviewed in the spring to ensure it meets everyone's requirements "
Anyone who would like more details of the Community Emergency scheme is welcome to contact Mark at Lancaster City Council civilcontingencies@lancaster.gov.uk
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