What does our Emergency Planning Team do?
The role of the Emergency Planning Team at the council is to support the council to deliver its statutory duties under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and other relevant legislation. This involves working closely with a range of partners including community groups, volunteers, and Bedfordshire Local Resilience Forum partners.
The Civil Contingencies Act 2004, and accompanying non-legislative measures, deliver a single framework for civil protection in the UK. The Act requires the council and a number of other organisations to:
- assess the risk of emergencies occurring
- put in place Emergency Plans
- create Business Continuity Plans
- make information available to the public about emergency preparedness, and maintain arrangements to warn, inform and advise the public in the event of an emergency
- share information and cooperate with other local responders to enhance co-ordination and efficiency
- provide advice and assistance to business and voluntary organisations about Business Continuity Management
As a team we write the plans, we test the plans through exercises, we train people in their roles and we help coordinate the response in an emergency.
Our aim is to work together to help the council and its partners, volunteers and communities have the capabilities in place to respond to any type of emergency, no matter how big or how small.
The Emergency Planning Team also runs something called the Central Bedfordshire Safety Advisory Group (SAG), which is set up to provide advice, support and guidance to event organisers to help them run safe events within Central Bedfordshire. We have dedicated webpages for this service. Visit them here: Safety Advisory Group.