North Yorkshire Council
Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Committee
07 March 2025
Resilience and Emergencies Annual Update 2025
1.0 PURPOSE OF REPORT
1.1 This report provides an update on progress and incidents impacting emergency planning and community resilience within the Area Constituency Committee and wider council area.
2.0 BACKGROUND
2.1 Under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (CCA) North Yorkshire Council (NYC) is defined as a Category 1 organisation.
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).
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 2023/2025
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 |
|
Fire at Grange Avenue, Scarborough |
Scarborough and Whitby |
23.08.24 |
|
Fire at King Street, Pateley Bridge |
Skipton and Ripon |
04.09.24 |
|
Fire at Hagg Farm, Hagg Lane, Cawood |
Selby and Ainsty |
19.10.24 |
|
Fire at Allerton Grange Farm, Allerton Park |
Harrogate and Knaresborough |
22.10.24 |
|
Storm Bert |
North Yorkshire wide |
22.11.24 |
|
Storm Darragh |
North Yorkshire wide |
06.12.25 |
|
Amber Snow Warning |
North Yorkshire wide |
03.01.25 |
|
Avian Influenza Outbreak |
North Yorkshire wide |
22.01.25 |
|
Storm Eowyn |
North Yorkshire wide |
24.01.25 |
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.
· The further development of the NYC sandbag offer to allow for members of public to self serve from key sites.
· To embed a more resilience 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 Each Area Constituency 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.
5.2 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.
5.3 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.
6.2 Following the community support during the Covid pandemic, Resilience and Emergencies has been working with the Council’s Local Engagement Teams and the Community Anchor Organisations to further develop its Community Resilience Policy.
This policy will be developed by April 2025 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 – Community Resilience Profile
6.3 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.
7.0 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
7.1 There are no financial implications arising directly from this report as it provides information only.
8.0 LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
8.1 There are no legal implications arising directly from this report as it provides information only.
9.0 EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS
9.1 There are no equalities implications arising directly from this report as it provides information only.
10.0 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS/BENEFITS INCLUDING CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT
10.1 There are no equalities implications arising directly from this report as it provides information only.
11.0 REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS
11.1 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.
|
12.0 |
RECOMMENDATION
|
|
12.1 |
Committee Members are requested to note the information within the report and offer comments.
|
APPENDICES:
Appendix A – Corporate Emergency Planning Group Work Plan 2024/2025
Background Documents: None
Report author – Matt Robinson, Head of Resilience and Emergencies
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 |