Following an incident that occurred on the 5th of March regarding three improvised explosive devices which were sent by mail to transport hubs in London. Although it is highly unlikely that suspicious mail will be sent to residential houses, it is important that we all stay vigilant. Delivered items can include letters, packets and parcels…
This week is Would You Be Ready? Week – an initiative led by Business in the Community (BITC) to help businesses prevent potentially devastating consequences due to a lack of effective cyber security. BITC is challenging businesses from every sector to take its free five-minute Readiness Test to help you gauge how at risk your…
The British Red Cross have launched a new initiative to help you support the response to emergencies in your local community. A Community Reserve Volunteer is anyone who wants to help their local community if a large incident should occur, but is perhaps unable to commit time to regular volunteering. No specialist skills are required…
From 18 January 2018, an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone applies to everyone who keeps poultry or captive birds in England. If you keep poultry or birds, you must follow detailed requirements on strict biosecurity, whether you have commercial flocks or just a few birds in a backyard flock. These measures have been taken because bird flu has been…
Somerset Emergency Community Contacts are individuals identified by their local Parish or Town Council to be a point of contact in an emergency. Past incidents identified that some communities were unsure who to contact for help and that responding agencies would have benefited from some valuable local knowledge. To address this the Somerset Local Authorities’…
Volunteers’ Week is an annual event taking place at the start of June and celebrates the contribution made by millions of volunteers across the UK. It’s run by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations in partnership with Volunteer Development Scotland, Volunteer Now(Northern Ireland) and Wales Council for Voluntary Action. In Somerset, voluntary sector organisations come together…
Under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, Local Resilience Forums have a statutory duty to produce a Community Risk Register to enable the community to be better prepared to cope during an emergency and to recover more quickly. The Avon and Somerset Local Resilience Forum has now published the 2017 risk register which can be found…
Members of Dunster Parish Council have come together with volunteers and support from the Community Resilience in Somerset Partnership to establish the Dunster Community Flood Group. The group now has a Sand Store, an Equipment Store plus enough equipment to help the group to tackle flooding problems in the future and protect vulnerable parishioners. For more…
The Somerset Local Authorities maintain a database of large facilities and trained staff across the County suitable for providing shelter and support in the event of an emergency. In addition to this we recognise that not all emergencies affect large populations and in some cases, by the time we activate our staff and resources the…
Ignore or Enable? The Somerset Local Authorities’ Civil Contingencies Partnership is hosting a conference on May 9th at the Westlands Entertainment Venue in Yeovil to explore the role of spontaneous volunteers in an emergency. With addresses from local, national and international perspectives in both practice and academia, this will be an excellent opportunity share lessons…
