Emergency Planning

What is "Emergency Planning"?

Emergency Planning or Community Resilience? Both mean the same thing. Some Councils have Emergency Planning Teams, others have Community Resilience Teams. Both do the same thing.

The Emergency Planning Team within Reading Borough Council is responsible for complying with the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. As a result the team, along with other emergency responders, identify potential risks within the Reading Borough Council area.

They then prepare the Council in its ability to respond to Emergencies by liaising across Directorates and preparing plans that are meaningful. We check with other agencies, such as the emergency services, and our neighbouring Councils to make sure that all of our plans fit well together. These plans are exercised to ensure that they are practical and reflect what is likely to happen if an emergency occurs.

This type of planning is no different to a household ensuring that they have an escape route in the event of a fire, or having a plan for flooding. They are just on a much larger scale involving many different agencies.

In addition to writing response plans, the team also organises training, emergency exercises and seminar events to ensure that Council staff and partner agencies are up to date with current emergency plans and ready to respond.

We have a statutory responsibility to plan for incidents at "risk" sites in the area that fall under specific legislation such as Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) or the Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations (REPPIR). These regulations mean we not only have to plan for these sites, but to regularly exercise those plans.

The Council knows that we could not respond to any emergency on our own. We form strong partnerships with other emergency responders, local Councils the Environment Agency and utility companies. By working together, planning together and exercising together we form a strong alliance. Being aware of how another agency works, and the responsibilities that they have are key to working together.

After an incident, the Council will be the lead agency in the recovery process. The amount of time that it will take to recover from a major incident will be proportional to the scale of any damage to the community. Incidents such as flooding which can cause widespread devastation for the community could take many months to recover and the councils recovery plan covers such scenarios.

The Council is also responsible for ensuring that its own business can continue to operate during an emergency. Likewise, the Council also encourages local businesses to have business continuity plans.