Most emergencies can be dealt with by the ‘emergency services’ – Police, Fire and Rescue and Ambulance.
Leamington Flood 1998
However, some emergencies are so large, have such an impact or are so long-running that other organisations such as Warwick District Council need to be involved in the response; for example widespread flooding or flash flooding, major transport accidents, animal health diseases and major fires.
These major emergencies are rare but it is important that we are prepared for them. The Council’s emergency planning service works hard to make sure that the disruption caused to residents would be kept to a minimum if the worst ever happened. Some of our main roles include:
- Making sure our services continue to run as well as possible.
- Arranging accommodation for people made temporarily homeless by an emergency.
- Providing information and advice to the public.
- Assisting other organisations in their response
Our work in this area is governed by legislation – the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (CCA). An emergency as defined by the CCA is:
“An event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare in a place in the UK, the environment of a place in the UK, or war or terrorism which threatens serious damage to the security of the UK. “
The CCA requires us to undertake seven duties, these are:
- Assess risk
- Create emergency plans
- Communicate with the public
- Co-operate with other responding organisations
- Share information with other agencies
- Make our own business continuity arrangements
- Promote business continuity to local businesses
Our emergency planning pages give you more information about the work we do and how you might prepare yourself for emergencies. You can also download the Emergency Planning Policy to find more information.