Hemyock

Parish Councils in Devon are encouraged by County and District Councils to write simple self help emergency plans to enable a parish to respond in the event of a universal threat occurring where overstretched blue light services are unable to attend immediately.   The aim of the recently launched Hemyock Emergency Plan (HEP) is to show how the parish council can contribute to the recovery from an emergency.  This can be nothing more than an outline idea given local resources, training and preparedness for every type of potential emergency.  However the HEP Team led by Councillor Steven Reed carried out an assessment and considered that the key threat to the village was prolonged poor weather (heavy snow and/or flooding) with a loss of electrical power. The picture shows some of the HEP Team discussing the Plan with District Councillor Frank Rosamond at Hemyock Market.  From left to right Councillor Paul Steed, Team Member Jillian Ould, Frank Rosamond and Team Member Don Attlee.

The Council’s plan in outline is to set up Emergency Control Desk at the Blackdown Medical Centre which has an emergency power generator and to provide a limited accommodation and feeding centre based upon the Catherine Wheel which is the village’s only pub.  The launch of the Hemyock plan was held at the Saturday Market on Saturday (20th) to gain maximum publicity.  A short-form version of HEP was also published in the local Parish Magazine.  A supply of emergency blankets, the type popular with the emergency services, has been purchased by the council and these were on sale to members of the public at the Market for use in cars and in the domestic setting.  A stock of these will now be held by the Blackdown Practice.

Devon County Council issue a Guidance Pack for setting up an emergency plan which was compiled by Judith Hardiman, who gave the thumbs up to the Hemyock Parish Council for their diligence.  The work on HEP was undertaken with input from Peter Brown who is the Emergency Planning Officer for Exeter City & Mid Devon District Councils.  He applauded the work of the Parish Council and commented that given the limited local resources, training and preparedness that HEP was an adequate response to the perceived threat.  District Councillor Frank Rosamond saluted the Council’s efficiency in producing HEP commenting that this was typical of Hemyock’s forward thinking under its Chairman Heather Stallard.

Steven Reed
PRO
For Hemyock Parish Council