Emergency Planning

Major Emergency Planning

Ashford Borough Council has a Major Emergency Plan which helps it deal effectively with any 'major emergency'; coordinating its activity with other organisations which are responding to the incident. These other organisations may include the Police, Kent Fire & Rescue Service, South East Coast Ambulance, NHS Kent & Medway, Environment Agency or Kent County Council.

A 'major emergency' can cause death, injury or serious disruption to normal life for large numbers of people. The scale and/or duration of the emergency means that public services can no longer operate under their normal conditions and they have to put in place special arrangements to deal with it.

All of the council's staff take part in emergency planning, training and emergency exercises.

If you would like to know more about emergency planning or preparing for emergencies, please visit the following websites:

• Kent Prepared
• Emergency Planning Society UK
• Cabinet Office - Guidance for preparing for emergencies

What are our risks?

The Kent Community Risk Register is available to view via Kent Prepared - Kent Community Risk Register.

The risk register is informed by national guidance and developed locally with partners and subject matter experts to determine what are our most likely risks in Kent. This may include risks such as flooding, severe weather or loss of utilities.

There is also a localised Community Risk Register for Ashford [pdf] 238KB which details the main risks for the Ashford borough based on the Kent wide version. This document can be used by local parishes and community groups to help write your own Community Resilience Plans. Further information of this can be found on our Community Emergency Plans page.

Business Continuity management

Business Continuity is a necessary and important management process that helps keep an organisation going even in the most trying of times.

The council puts in place business continuity plans that identifies critical functions and risks to those functions. It then manages the risk to the delivery of these essential services, such as benefits and housing and ensures an effective recovery plan is in place after the incident.

Please visit our business continuity page for further information.

Contact us

For further information or advice on any aspect of Emergency Planning or Business Continuity, please call 01233 331111 or email emergency.planning@ashford.gov.uk