Tendring District Council, (TDC), has an extensive suite of plans to support its response to major emergencies that may affect the District.
Further information on Emergency Planning and the Emergency Planning team at TDC.
To support these arrangements the TDC Emergency Planning Team invites all Parish and Town Councils across the District to quarterly events, where aspects of emergency planning are presented, discussed, exercised and debriefed.
The inaugural meeting of the forum was held December 2012, and the forum has gradually grown as more Parish and Town Councils continue to develop their own Emergency Planning arrangements, for their local community.
Although TDC will do everything it can to support the communities across the district during an emergency, there may be occasions when this becomes very difficult;
- when extreme snow prevents access and isolates communities;
- during a wide area event, such as a major tidal surge where multiple communities are affected across the whole District or even County.
These types of major emergency require Parish and Town Councils to have arrangements in place to support to their communities until the emergency services or TDC can get to them, which may be some time depending on the circumstances.
The Plans also provide a framework for assistance to both the emergency services and TDC, when access isn’t an issue, by providing support;
- opening of a Village Hall or Community Centre as an Emergency Assistance Centre,
- access to local specialist equipment such as chainsaws to help clear fallen trees.
Having this type of information gathered into a plan, means the Parish and Town Councils can play a key support role during these types of events providing essential, localised information to responders and TDC alike.
Along with the development of their plan, the Parish and Town Councils have also been asked to provide 3 Emergency Points of Contact, to enable an efficient and effective cascade of information to them by TDC, when required, for example on receipt of an AMBER severe weather warning.
The work all parties have put into these arrangements have made the cascade of emergency information easier, the benefit of which was experienced during:
- St Jude Storm October 2013
- Tidal Surge December 2013
- Christmas Storms 2013
- February Storms 2014
- Summer Storms 2015
- Power Outages September 2015
- Summer Storms and Surface Water Flooding June 2016
- Summer Storms and Surface Water Flooding July 2016
- Unseasonal, Strong Winds August 2016
These arrangements also go towards creating Community Resilience, within the communities, by sharing self-preparedness information, such as the creation of a Grab Bag, promoting registration on the Environment Agency Floodline Warning Direct system, or with the utility companies preference user schemes for the vulnerable.
At each meeting the members of TDC’s Emergency Planning team provide an overview of incidents that have occurred since the previous meeting, updates on resilience issues and reviews of the Parish and Town Council Emergency Plans.
External speakers are also invited and presentations have been delivered by:
- Affinity Water
- East of England Ambulance Service
- Environment Agency
- Essex Police
- Essex County Council:
- Flood and Water Management Team
- Highways
- Met Office
- RAYNET
- UK Power Networks
For more information on how your Parish and Town Council can prepare for an emergency email: eplanning@tendringdc.gov.uk
Future Events:
28 December 6pm to 8pm DERC Open Evening: pop along to have a look at how the District Emergency Response Centre is Set-up
2017 meeting dates:
- Tuesday 7 March:
- Tuesday 6 June: Get Ready for Summer and Seaside Safety
- Tuesday 5 September: Get Ready for Winter and Flood Awareness
- Tuesday 5 December: Winter Workshop, Preparing to Review Your Plans
- Thursday 28 December 2017: 6pm to 8pm DERC Open Evening
Past Events:
2016
- 15 March: Local Community Resilience Workshop & Women’s Tour, Tendring Rally
- 21 June: Summer Surgery
- 13 September: Get Ready for Winter 2015, Exercise GET READY FOR WINTER
- 6 December: Winter Workshop
2015
- 10 March: Spring Surgery
- 9 June: Summer Surgery
- 8 September: Autumn Surgery
- 8 December: Winter Surgery
2014
- March: Local Community Resilience Workshop & Exercise EXPLOSION
- June: Summer Surgery
- September: Get Ready for Winter 2014
- December: Winter Surgery and District Emergency Response Centre Familiarisation Visit
2013
- July: EP Surgery
- September: Get Ready for Winter 2013
- December: Operation Martello Debrief and District Emergency Response Centre Familiarisation Visit.
2012
- December: Local Community Resilience Workshop
