Emergency plan

1. Introduction
2. Community risk register, types of emergencies and The Civil Contingencies Act
3. What is a major incident?
4. Who is involved in emergency response?
5. Phases of an incident
6. You are here: Response phases: Where? and What?
7. Welfare
8. Communication and media management
9. Response phase: How?
10. Staff welfare and finance
11. Recovery
12. Appendix

6. Response phases: Where? and What?

8. Response phase: Where?

Borough Emergency Coordination Centre (BECC)

It is highly likely that in the event of a major incident being declared, the Borough Emergency Coordination Centre (BECC) will be the focal point of Reigate & Banstead Borough Council's response. Below is a summary of important aspects of the BECC. Full details can be found in the Reigate & Banstead Borough Council BECC Plan.

8.1 BECC Location

Removed due to sensitive contents.

8.2 Decision to Open the BECC

An assessment of whether to open the BECC will be influenced by:

The apparent long-term or serious implications for Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and/or the community;
Pre-planned or anticipated incidents/events;
The need for a coordinated response of two or more Council departments;
A protracted incident likely to last for more than 24 hours;
Out of hours when it is difficult to co-ordinate activities of responding staff;
Major disruption to Reigate & Banstead Borough Council;
The need to support adjoining boroughs/districts faced with an emergency;
If the BECC can be virtual or physical.

A BECC is scalable: it could be a very small group working together or it could be a large coordination centre.

8.3 BECC Cells

The BECC is made up of three cells where incident requests are dealt with and coordinated by a BECC Manager. More information can be found in the BECC plan.

Welfare Cell – deals with all welfare needs of the residents including vulnerable people and rest centres.
Information and Support Cell – deals with all corporate activities such as Comms, ICT, Legal, HR.
Environment Cell – deals with operational requests such as equipment, Environmental Health etc.

9. Response phase: What?

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council duties to respond

The primary responsibilities of Reigate & Banstead Borough Council during a major incident are summarised in the following table. As responsibilities can differ between Surrey County Council and Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and often get confused, Surrey County Council’s responsibilities have also been listed below.

As outlined in the Surrey Emergency Response Protocol (SERP), Reigate & Banstead Borough Council is pre-assigned as the lead agency for earthquakes. In this instance Reigate & Banstead Borough Council will be required to chair multi-agency meetings, including the Strategic Coordinating Group (SCG) and Tactical Coordinating Group (TCG).

Table: Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and Surrey County Council duties to respond

Duty area	Reigate & Banstead Borough Council	Surrey County Council
General	Activating and staffing the BECC as required in support of the management of the incident. Support the emergency services on request. Lead the recovery effort providing support and aftercare in an incident only affecting Reigate & Banstead to persons living within the borough until a state of normality or ‘new’ normality is returned.	Activating and staffing an Emergency Control Centre. Support the emergency services on request Lead the recovery effort providing support and aftercare to persons living within the County in a multi-borough incident until a new state of normality is achieved. Liaison with government departments, other local authorities, voluntary groups, utilities and other organisations
Welfare	Assist people in need. Provide immediate shelter and welfare for survivors not requiring medical support and their families and friends via Emergency Assistance Centres (assisted by Surrey County Council Social Care and Health partners). Provide medium to longer-term welfare of survivors, such as social services support and financial assistance which may be generated from appeal funds.	Welfare and trauma support (via voluntary organisations/adult or children’s social care) Support at Emergency Assistance Centres Provide medium to longer-term welfare of survivors, such as social services support and financial assistance which may be generated from appeal funds. Provision of transport
Corporate	Provide help lines to act as a public information service for residents and staff in liaison with the lead emergency service. Release information that has been agreed by the Police to the media and give advice to the public. Maintain and restore Council services and facilities Internal corporate services (HR, communications, legal, customer services) Member Liaison Officer	Communications equipment Public information Surrey County Council internal corporate services
Operational	Provide investigating and enforcement officers under the provision of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985 as requested by Defra Facilitate the inspection of dangerous structures to ensure they are safe for emergency personnel to enter Clean-up of pollution, facilitate the remediation and reoccupation of areas affected by an emergency Waste collection Provision of sandbags in line with the Council’s Sandbag policy Other depot services Transport people from an evacuation point to other EACs	Advice on storing fuel Closing footpaths and open spaces Repairs, demolition, clearance Equipment, e.g. heavy lifting (via contractors) Setting up a temporary mortuary May take action to protect property from flooding by water from the highway where there is a failure of the highway drainage system Transport Waste disposal May provide sandbags for road flooding Managing traffic (road closures and diversions) Animal health Forestry

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