Date published: 2025-10-16 | Category: Communities and volunteering, Delivering for local residents, Focusing on prevention, information and advice
Communities across Bath & North East Somerset are being encouraged to find out more about being ready for emergencies such as flooding, severe weather, power cuts or issues on the roads.
The council’s Community Resilience initiative, which launches today (16 Oct), will highlight ways in which local groups, business and individual residents can strengthen their emergency preparedness so that in the event of an incident they can protect their friends and neighbours, support the emergency services response and help their community recover quickly.
Councillor Manda Rigby, Cabinet Member for Communications & Community, said: “We are lucky in Bath and North East Somerset because major emergencies are rare, but it’s important that our communities are as prepared as they possibly can be just in case. The Community Resilience initiative is highlighting the importance of thinking ahead and having a plan so that you know what to do if your street flooded or there a community-wide power outage.
“Once in place, a plan can strengthen the ability of a community or business to cope with a crisis, minimise the impact and speed up the recovery.”
Following a series of floods in 2012, residents in Chew Magna created their own plan to identify risks, outline how to support vulnerable residents, pull together local resources and expertise and establish coordinated communication methods in a crisis.
Alex Easton, Community Representative in Chew Magna, said: “We realised, as a community that preparation was key to dealing with flood events, so we didn’t have to make decisions in the height of the storm, often in the dark. Together we devised a plan that clearly set out what neighbourhood wardens would do and in what order following alerts and warnings, particularly in a flash flood catchment.
“Key to communication is the flood phone – a single point of contact where WhatsApp groups can communicate and we can link with outside agencies. Each year, we hold a Resilience Day where wardens check that equipment is still working and to update residents on telemetry, for example on devices on the watercourses.
“Throughout the development, we have had incredible support from the council’s Emergency team and Drainage Department and the Environment Agency. We also have ongoing support from Avon Fire and Rescue, the Police, and Communities Prepared.”
B&NES residents are invited to a Community Resilience Day - a free event that includes talks and workshops to help individuals, communities or businesses better prepare for emergencies.
It will be of interest to anyone who wants ideas about how they can prepare for and respond to emergencies to protect their family, neighbours or staff.
The event will be held on Thursday 20 November at All Saints Centre, High St, Upper Weston, Bath BA1 4BX, 10am to 3.30pm.
It’s free to attend, but it will be ticketed, so people will need to book on Eventbrite.
Residents interested in finding out more, but who can’t make it to the workshop, can find useful information on the council’s community resilience webpage.
The Community Resilience Communications initiative is designed to support Bath & North East Somerset’s statutory duty under the Civil Contingencies Act to effectively warn and inform the public.
The council’s Emergency Management team can set up a number of buildings within Bath and North East Somerset as safe places if shelter is needed during a major emergency. If your community or business has a safe place, please let us know and we will add it to the list of buildings that will be open during a major emergency.
A safe place should have:
- 24-hour access
- disabled access
- toilets
- heating
- basic kitchen facilities
- electricity
- warm drink
ENDS