North Yorkshire Council

Corporate & Partnerships O & S Committee

2^nd December 2024

Resilience and Emergencies Annual Update 2024

1.0 PURPOSE OF REPORT

1.1 This report provides an update on progress and incidents impacting emergency planning and community resilience affecting North Yorkshire Council.

2.0 BACKGROUND

2.1 Under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (CCA) North Yorkshire Council (NYC) is defined as a Category 1 organisation.

2.2 The CCA is the driver for how agencies prepare and plan for emergencies, working

nationally, locally and co-operatively to ensure civil protection in the UK. The Act places a statutory duty on the NYC to:

· Assess the risk of emergencies occurring and use this to inform contingency planning;

· Put in place emergency plans;

· Put in place Business Continuity Management arrangements;

· Put in place arrangements to make information available to the public about civil protection matters and maintain arrangements to warn, inform and advise the public in the event of an emergency;

· Share information with other local responders to enhance co-ordination;

· Co-operate with other local responders to enhance co-ordination and efficiency; and

· Provide advice and assistance to businesses and voluntary organisations about business continuity management (Local Authorities only).

2.3 Emergency Planning and Community Resilience should aim where possible to prevent emergencies occurring, and when they do occur, good planning should reduce, control or mitigate the effects of the emergency. It is a systematic and ongoing process which should evolve as lessons are learnt and circumstances change.

3.0 INCIDENTS AFFECTING NORTH YORKSHIRE BETWEEN 2023/2024

3.1 Between April 2023 and the production of this report NYC and its Local Resilience Forum partner agencies have come together to respond and recover from the following incidents:

Incident	Locality	Date
Thornton Steward Water Treatment Works	Richmond and Northallerton	09.05.23
999 emergency calls outage	UK wide	25.06.23
Protest, Scarborough	Scarborough and Whitby	15.06.23
Marine Residence Hotel Fire, Scarborough	Scarborough and Whitby	16.06.23
Diesel Spillage A65, Settle	Skipton and Ripon	25.06.23
Domiciliary Care Provider incident		02.09.23
Prime Minister Northallerton Residence Protest	Richmond and Northallerton	03.09.23
Mass die off of birds on coastal beaches	Scarborough and Whitby	18.09.23
Fire in Skipton	Skipton and Ripon	01.10.23
Storm Babet	North Yorkshire wide	18.10.23
Influenza A(H1N2)v case	Thirsk and Malton
Storm Ciaran	North Yorkshire wide	01.11.23
Storm Debi	North Yorkshire wide	13.11.23
Storm Elin	North Yorkshire wide	09.12.23
Storm Fergus	North Yorkshire wide	10.12.23
Storm Gerrit	North Yorkshire wide	27.12.23
Storm Henk	North Yorkshire wide	02.01.24
Storm Isha	North Yorkshire wide	21.01.24
Storm Jocelyn	North Yorkshire wide	23.01.24
Storm Kathleen	North Yorkshire wide	06.04.24
Knaresborough flash floods	Harrogate and Knaresborough	06.05.24
Critical incident, Carlton in Cleveland	Richmond and Northallerton	22.05.24
Fire at Molson Coors Brewery Company, Tadcaster	Selby and Ainsty	13.06.24
Fire at The Princess Fish & Chips, Scarborough	Scarborough and Whitby	25.06.24
Prison capacity pressures	UK wide	15.07.24
Potential public disorder	UK wide	08.08.24

3.2 Areas of good practice that will be further developed:

· Working in partnership with the Chain Lane Community Anchor Organisation during the Knaresborough flood incident to support local residents from the Local Assistant Centre.

· Multi parish community events in Riccall and Tockwith & surrounding communities

· Ready for Anything Volunteer Conference held at the Emergency Planning College.

· Continual development of the Major Incident Response Team volunteer group who support individuals and organisations affected by critical and major incidents – There have been more than 75 referrals since April 2023 supporting more than 100 individuals.

· The further development of the NYC sandbag offer to allow for members of public to self serve from key sites.

· To embed a more resilient out of hours commander structure by having standby Bronze Commanders covering the East, West and Central Areas of the County.

3.3 If Elected Members have any views or recommendations on any of these incidents please send them through to emergency@northyorks.gov.uk.

4.0 NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL’S CORPORATE EMERGENCY PLANNING GROUP WORK PLAN AND PROGRESS 2024/25

4.1 The following is set out within the NYC Resilience and Emergencies Policy:

· The organisation has appointed the Assistant Chief Executive for Local Engagement as the Accountable Emergency Officer (AEO) responsible for Resilience and Emergencies.

· The Integrated Emergency Planning Cycle is co-ordinated for the Council by the Head of Resilience and Emergencies and the Resilience and Emergencies Team (RET).

· The Assistant Chief Executive for Local Engagement chairs the Corporate Resilience and Emergencies Group (CREG). The CREG is made up of a number of Senior Managers within NYC who have a role to play in ensuring CCA Duties. The CREG hold responsibility for setting and delivering an annual work plan.

· The current work plan and progress of the Corporate Emergency Planning Group is found at Appendix A.

5.0 ELECTED MEMBERS ROLE IN INTEGRATED EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

5.1 In September 2023 the North Yorkshire Council Elected Members Handbook was created and shared with Members. If Elected Members which to receive another copy of the Elected Members Handbook please contact the Resilience and Emergencies Team on the email address provided below.

5.2 Annually the Head of Resilience and Emergencies will provide a report, and when requested attend, each North Yorkshire Area Committee.

5.3 Each Area Committee is allocated a Resilience and Emergencies Officer. They will work with Elected members to ensure:

· Elected members training,

· that local risks are identified within your locality,

· that community resilience has been developed,

· that resources and capability gaps are identified, as well as difficulties in communicating these risks to specific groups within your electoral division are co-ordinated.

5.4 The officers supporting each Area Committee are listed below:

Area Committee	Resilience and Emergencies Officer
Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Committee	Simon Wright
Richmond (Yorks) Area Committee	Jason Wainwright
Scarborough and Whitby Area Committee	Lucy Trewhitt
Selby and Ainsty Area Committee	Wendy Muldoon
Skipton and Ripon Area Committee	Lee Brayford
Thirsk and Malton Area Committee	Ray Wood

5.5 Elected members are then asked to provide ongoing support to develop Integrated Emergency Management within their electoral divisions. This will include:

· Supporting the communication of community risks

· Provide leadership in developing community resilience.

· Work with the locality Resilience and Emergencies officers to identify opportunities for funding resource gaps.

· Support training and exercises for community groups.

5.6 If Elected Members wish to discuss any of these roles and responsibilities with their allocated Resilience and Emergencies Officer please contact emergency@northyorks.gov.uk.

6.0 COMMUNITY RESILIENCE WORK PLAN AND PROGRESS 2023/24

6.1 For decades the Resilience and Emergencies Team have worked with Parish and Town Councils alongside local businesses to encourage them to develop Community Emergency Plans and Community Emergency Groups.

6.2 Although these are voluntary we have had over a hundred plans developed across North Yorkshire. Community Emergency Plans and Community Emergency Groups heavily rely on individuals within the communities to take ownership and drive committees. As people move on, or are unable to continue to provide the community leadership, it has meant in some situations that there has not been anyone else identified who has the capacity to take it on.

6.3 Community Emergency Plans and Community Emergency Groups continue to be the bench mark we aspire to in developing Community Resilience, an engaged group of local individuals who are able to support their local communities. Where we have not been able to grow or maintain groups we are now developing additional ways to work with local volunteer and community groups to understand the partnerships that already exist who have capabilities to support in an emergency.

6.4 Following the community support during the Covid pandemic, Resilience and Emergencies has been working with the Council’s Local Engagement Teams, including Communities, Community Safety, the Parish and Town Council Manager, and the Community Anchor Organisations to develop a new Community Resilience Policy.

6.5 This policy will be signed off by the Corporate Emergency Planning Group by the end of 2024 and the role out and engagement on the policy will be delivered through three Community Resilience workshops which will be run prior to April 2025. Elected Members will be invited to these workshops.

7.0 Elected Members – Community Resilience Profile

7.1 Last year Elected Members were provided with the opportunity of accessing their own Community Resilience Profile. These are owned and reviewed by the Resilience and Emergencies Team and Elected Members can access their profile, as well as discuss their developments, via their allocated Resilience and Emergencies Officer.

8.0 IMPLICATIONS

8.1 There are no financial, legal or equalities implications arising directly from this report as it provides information only.

9.0 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS/BENEFITS INCLUDING CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT

9.1 There are no environmental impacts or benefits arising directly from this report as it provides information only.

10.0 REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

10.1 The recommendations contained below are to engage with and invite comments from Members on the content of this report, which followings the agreement with Members’ to provide an annual update.

11.0

RECOMMENDATION

11.1

Committee Members are requested to note the information within the report and offer comments.

Report author – Matt Robinson, Head of Resilience and Emergencies

Background Documents: None

Appendices:

Appendix A – Corporate Emergency Planning Group Work Plan 2024/2025

Corporate EP Group – Area of work	Comment
Locality response to incidents • Bronze Commander • Forward Liaison Officers • Integrated Emergency Management Groups • Share organisation learning • Locality training	A priority for this year is to understand how the ongoing restructures affect the Council’s ability to anticipate, assess, prevent, prepare, respond and recover to emergencies. This involves building new networks of staff and where required develop new processes.
Operational Flood Plans • Sandbag response – new BAU • NYC flood assets – before and during incidents • Community impact	A priority for this year is to focus on how the Council approaches its flooding responsibilities before, during and after events.
Community Resilience (Humanitarian Assistance)	A priority for this year will be the continuation of community resilience and the integration within community partnerships. This will accumulates with three Community Resilience workshops in the new year.
Horizon Scanning of risk update for Management Board	To provide (twice yearly, quarterly) updates on the community risks within North Yorkshire.
Annual Exercise (November)	Going forward NYC will do one large internal exercise each November
2 x Bronze Commander Training	Going forward NYC will always offer 2 x Bronze Commander Training
2 x Service Silver Training	Going forward NYC will always offer 2 x Service Silver Training
Ongoing Silver Commander Training	Going forward NYC will always offer ongoing Silver Commander Training
Ongoing Incident Support Officer Training	Going forward NYC will always offer ongoing Incident Support Officer Training