Welcome to the Somerset Prepared Winter 2024 Newsletter

In this newsletter we reflect on a year that has been extremely busy with events, community engagement, emergency response and some fantastic examples of collaborative working. We also share a host of top tips for keeping warm, safe, and resilient through challenging winter conditions.

If you have any queries about this or any of the other features in our newsletter, please get in touch at somersetprepared@somerset.gov.uk. We would also welcome submissions or suggestions for future topics to be covered.

Best wishes, 

Somerset Civil Contingencies Unit & Somerset Prepared Partners

Conference Highlights

Back in October, Somerset Prepared partnership hosted their annual Community Resilience Day. It was a hugely successful day filled with informative talks, engaging workshops and demonstrations all dedicated to enhancing community resilience within Somerset.

The day was attended by many representatives from local communities and voluntary groups who were able to learn from esteemed speakers and experts on various aspects of preparedness, covering topics such as writing your community plan, community organisation and communication. As well as having the opportunity to engage in interactive workshops designed to foster collaboration and resilience-building strategies, and witness demonstrations that showcased innovative approaches to preparedness.

The event also hosted the presentations of the prestigious Community Resilience Award. On its second year, this accolade recognised exceptional individuals and groups who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to strengthening community resilience in Somerset. We are pleased to announce this year’s winners were:

Group Award winner – Kingston St Mary Good Neighbour Volunteers

Group Award runner up – Avon & Somerset Search and Rescue

Individual Award winner – Rev Deborah Perreau of Combe St Nicholas

Individual award runner up – Ian Upshall of Stoke St Gregory and Kate Symmonds of Moorland, Fordgate, and West Yeo 

Award Winners - Kingston St Mary Good Neighbour Volunteers 

Somerset Prepared participant enjoying a practical learning session with Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service

Engagement and Events

The Somerset Prepared team has also been busy getting out and about in the community offering advice, support, and practical guidance on a range of resilience issues. We are keen to broaden our reach in 2024 and will be planning a series of roadshow events for Parish, Town, and City councils to follow up on training needs identified in the conference feedback. In the interim, these are just some of the events that we partners have attended:

• Flood Drop-in events at Wellington, Carhampton and Minehead

• LCN Meetings for Crewkerne and Ilminster, South East Somerset, Hestercombe, Wellington and Wiveliscombe, Taunton, Minehead and Watchet, Chard and Blackdowns, Yeovil, Avalon and the Poldens, Levels and Moors, and Shepton.

• Workshop on Community Emergency plans for South East Somerset LCN

• Environment Agency Community Information Events in Moorland and Burrowbridge

• Parish Council meetings by invitation

All these meetings are carried out with the intention of building knowledge and resilience in the community. Please get in touch with our team if you have any questions about how we can help your community too.

Somerset Prepared Grant Award - Ilchester Mead

Somerset prepared runs a Small Grant scheme to help Parish and Town Councils purchase items to support resilience in their local community. Since this scheme has now been running for around ten years, we have decided it is time to carry out an survey of grant awardees and find out what items have turned out to be ‘best buys’ and essential in times of emergency. Watch this space to find out more as we speak to Grant Awardees across the year and explore their recommendations – and perhaps discover the odd item that failed to impress.

This newsletter it is the turn of Ilchester Mead. They received a grant in the funding year 2014/15 and purchased a shed and a selection of items for flood preparedness – from Hi-Viz to torches and sandbags. The photo here shows the shed in December 2023, tidy and well stocked despite the fact it has been in regular use every year.

Ilchester Mead experiences regular threat from flood waters and residents such as Graham Hill, Paul Westlake, and Brian Masters are highly experienced in knowing how and when to respond. Graham told us that the kit they had bought with the funding had proved invaluable to the village and that they would recommend the grant scheme to any Parish or Town planning ahead for emergencies.

Flood preparedness shed in Ilchester Mead - purchased with a Somerset Prepared Small Grant Award. 

Winter Ready Businesses

As 2024 begins, the colder and more unsettled weather brings along potentially severe risks to small businesses.

Small businesses make up 99.9% of businesses in the UK and employing 16.3 million people, yet only 27% of small businesses have business continuity plans in place.

Now is the time for small business to ensure they are ready for extreme weather conditions. There are some common risks winter brings that you should consider and plan contingencies for. These include extreme weather damaging buildings, dangerous surface and driving conditions, flooding, and supply chain disruptions.

For information on producing a business continuity plan, visit Businesses Prepared – Somerset Prepared and Business continuity plan | The Federation of Small Businesses

Prepared for Seasonal Weather?

Now we are well into winter, there is plenty of advice online about how to stay warm, safe and healthy in all weathers.

Our first recommendation is the Met Office. Take a look at their advice on Ten Things You Should Do Now to Prepare For Winter as a great starting point. 10 things you should do now to prepare for winter - Met Office

You can also find out more about the weather and flood risk for your local area using a number of other resources.

Firstly, this government website lets you look up the flood risk for your local area. Find location - Check for flooding - GOV.UK (check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk). You can also register there for the Flood Warning service and receive notifications if your address is in a risk area. Then, the Environment Agency website has a host of useful information about flooding and how to prepare for a flood event. If you do experience flooding internally to your home or business then you can report it via this Somerset-specific reporting tool.

 But if it is local Somerset advice you are after from the Council, then these pages may offer just the information you are after. Somerset Council Flooding Advice.

Driving in Winter

Drivers should also consult the AA and RAC for their winter tips on car care and driving advice as both have excellent information and advice.

Winter driving advice | AA (theaa.com)

Winter driving advice | RAC Drive

Health and Wellbeing in Winter

Across the winter months the NHS continue to promote flu and covid vaccination programmes. To find out more about what is available in your local area to help with winter health you can take a look on their winter webpages: Seasonal vaccinations and winter health - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Keeping pets and wildlife safe in the winter

It is not just the cold that can pose a danger to animals in the winter – hazards such as road salt and antifreeze can also be deadly. You can find out more about how to protect your companion animals by taking a read of these sites which have a host of good ideas about helping both pet and wild animals in winter.

Keeping Pets Safe in Cold Weather | RSPCA

Keep your dog safe during winter | The Kennel Club

Helping Wildlife in Winter | RSPCA

Wildlife: helping through winter / RHS Gardening

Help wildlife in the cold | The Wildlife Trusts

Looking forward

Here at Somerset Prepared we are looking forward to spring and the chance to tell you more about our new projects. This year you can look forward to the following:

• The launch of our School Resilience Education project

• The Somerset Prepared Roadshow – resilience training in YOUR area

• The ever-popular Somerset Prepared Conference and Awards

• A refresh of our website and resources

But in the meantime, don’t forget to do your bit to help resilience in your community. Here are four things you can do on the cold dark evenings:

• Apply for a Somerset Prepared Small Grant for your Parish or Town Council to improve local resilience. Information on this here.

• Sign up for Flood Warnings here and Met Office Weather Alerts here

• Book a place on a Communities Prepared training course. These courses offer a good general introduction to preparedness topics. You can check-in with Somerset Prepared for our offers on Somerset-specific resilience training later in the year.

• Finally, we would love your reflections on what resilience means to you. Let’s hear your stories of success, your learning points, your feedback, and your good idea. We are going to be refreshing our website in 2024 and would also particularly welcome any photos we could use – scenes of Somerset, resilience volunteers in action or funny moments from your year.

• Please get in touch on somersetprepared@somerset.gov.uk