What is community resilience?

Community resilience is about communities and individuals harnessing local resources and expertise to help themselves in an emergency, in a way that complements the response of the emergency services.

Royal Wootton Bassett Town Council is creating a local Community Emergency Plan. The Plan is in place to help all our residents and businesses, so that if there is an emergency we can contact each other, know how we can work together and how we can help each other.

Why this is important

An emergency can happen at any time, and could be a major event such as a crash or a fire, but is more likely to be disruption from a flood, heavy snow, power cut or pandemic flu. In emergencies, communities tend to pull together. By making contact with you now and understanding what you can offer, we will be much more prepared before an emergency occurs, which makes our community stronger and more resilient.

How can you help your community?

Our request is that you volunteer something that could be of use to the wider community. What you offer doesn’t need to cost anything. You may have expertise, equipment, people or shelter that could be invaluable before, during or after an emergency.   For instance, if there was a flu epidemic some people may be unable to go out and collect their prescriptions or pick up shopping.   If you would be able to assist people in this situation this would be of great help to the community.

We ask you to kindly complete and return the short form shown below. With the information that you provide, we will be able to build a full picture of local emergency preparedness.

Next Steps

The details you provide will not be made public. We will share your information only among a small Emergency Committee appointed by the Council. We will be in touch to confirm how we are going to use the details that you have provided.

Thank you for your help, I hope that we can count on your assistance in the event of a local emergency.

Note: new website address for Wiltshire Council Emergency Information http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/civil-emergencies-planning-for-an-emergency

Community Resilience – Water Shortages

If you or someone you know needs extra support during water shortages the link below may be of interest.

https://www.thameswater.co.uk/-/media/Site-Content/Thames-Water/Help-and-Advice/Read-our-leaflet.PDF

Community Resilience – Power Cuts

We all rely on electricity in our daily lives but for some a power cut can be particularly distressing and difficult. If this is the case for you or you know of someone who would need extra support the link below may be of interest.

https://www.ssepd.co.uk/PriorityServices

Did you know?

In the event of a power cut, most modern cordless telephones will not work. For emergencies it is a good idea to keep a corded analogue telephone in your home which will work on a land line even in a power cut.