About emergency planning
Pages in About emergency planning
- 1. What is emergency planning?
- 2. You are here: Our role during an emergency
2. Our role during an emergency
During emergency response Reigate & Banstead Borough Council undertake the following roles and responsibilities:
- support the emergency services
- assist people in distress
- coordinate the activities of their various departments and other agencies
- release information that has been agreed by the Police to the media and give advice to the public
- maintain local authority services as reasonably practicable
- lead the recovery effort providing support and aftercare to persons living within the borough until a state of normality or 'new' normality is returned.
In order to carry out these roles it is necessary for the council to have in place a robust set of plans.
In emergency circumstances, the Council may be called upon by the emergency services to assist in the response by providing a Rest Centre or helping the community to recover after the incident.
A Rest Centre is a predetermined building provided by the local authority for temporary accommodation of evacuees or homeless survivors, with overnight facilities. If friends and family living nearby are able to offer accommodation then this is always encouraged.
Food and drink will be available at the Rest Centre as well as personnel from both Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and Surrey County Council Social Care who will be available to provide support to all who have been affected.
Rest Centres in the borough
There are currently three locations in the borough that have been identified as possible Rest Centres in the event of an emergency:
- Horley Community Centre
- Woodhatch Community Centre
- Banstead Community Centre
The Council can provide assistance in a number of ways depending on the nature of the incident:
- Alternative accommodation
- Information to the general public
- A Rest Centre for evacuees and homeless survivors with overnight facilities, these are normally set up with the assistance of voluntary agencies
- Support to a Survivor Reception Centre, which is a secure area in which survivors not requiring acute hospital treatment can be taken for short-term shelter and first aid
- Support to a Friends and Relatives Reception Centre to help reunite family and friends with survivors
- Advice on dangerous structures
- An Emergency Control Centre to coordinate the response of the Council
Related websites
You can follow Surrey Prepared on Twitter / X to find out more information on preparing for an emergency, or you can check out the Surrey Prepared website: