Banter 72: Emergency Resilience
Richard Hood talks about getting prepared for emergencies at the parish and town council level for outages: power, comms, flooding - and particularly multi-outages -eg power and comms
Last updated
Richard Hood talks about getting prepared for emergencies at the parish and town council level for outages: power, comms, flooding - and particularly multi-outages -eg power and comms
Last updated
00:00 - Introduction
No presentation this week - the video is the presentation!
Jun 04, 2025 11:52 AM London ID: 834 5460 8536
The meeting focused on community preparedness and resilience in the face of various emergencies, including floods, wildfires, power outages, and communication failures. Discussions covered the importance of local networks, emergency planning, and leveraging community resources to address potential challenges. The participants emphasized the need for collaboration between communities, local authorities, and existing groups to enhance preparedness and response capabilities.
Andrew and Richard discussed the increasing interest in flood risk management, particularly from East Anglia, and the importance of understanding that floods can occur even on high ground due to factors like blocked drains or heavy rain. They highlighted a past flood in Gloucester where a substation nearly failed, potentially requiring the evacuation of 150,000 people, and noted that utility companies now have legal obligations to protect their sites. Andrew mentioned his involvement with Gloucester City Council during the event and expressed uncertainty about whether the substation's protection had been improved since then.
Richard introduced Communities Prepared, a national program funded by the national lottery aimed at helping communities become more prepared and resilient towards various hazards. He explained that the program started with flood volunteer training after the Somerset and Devon flooding in 2015 and expanded to include pandemic volunteer training during COVID-19. Richard noted that while some councils are proactive in emergency planning, others have been hesitant, citing a lack of statutory obligation and the role of local authorities and emergency services. He highlighted the current challenges in the UK, such as the ambulance crisis and long response times for emergency services in remote communities, emphasizing the need for community-focused resilience efforts.
Richard discussed the increasing challenges posed by flooding and wildfires in the UK, highlighting that the country is about 15-20 years behind in addressing wildfire risks compared to flooding. He emphasized the need for individuals and communities to prepare for emergencies, citing examples from other countries like Australia and Europe where self-sufficiency plans are more prevalent. Graham agreed that there is a degree of complacency in the UK, noting that people often rely on external support during emergencies. Richard mentioned that the UK government has been reluctant to have open conversations about emergency preparedness, leaving it to organizations like theirs to raise awareness. He encouraged attendees to visit their website for more information and to consider joining their free membership program to access training sessions and resources.
Richard discussed the development of new emergency modules, including power outages, water and sewerage outages, and communication failures, with a pilot for the power outage module scheduled for the following night. Christine shared an experience from a recent storm in Kinver, where power and phone outages caused chaos, highlighting the need for a strategic plan and essential communication tools like the local phone box. Richard explained that the transition from copper to fiber-optic phone lines could exacerbate communication issues during power outages, but suggested requesting resilient phones with battery backups for essential needs.
Richard discussed the importance of creating a hub and spoke structure within communities for emergency response, including local asset registers and three tiers of volunteers. He emphasized the need for a community network to pool information and identify vulnerable individuals during emergencies. Christine shared an example of community response during a storm, highlighting the effectiveness of local knowledge and spontaneous volunteer efforts. Graham mentioned a book about US communities' response to Hurricane Sandy as a resource for learning lessons.
Richard discussed a concept for community resilience, focusing on the idea of knowing 21 people within walking distance who can reach 21 others within three links, potentially including key professionals like trauma doctors and nurses. He emphasized the importance of building local networks and having agreed meeting points, such as village halls, in case of a communications breakdown. Graham noted that parish and town councils do not have a legal duty under the Civil Contingencies Act to plan for emergencies, though they have the power to assist other councils. The discussion highlighted the need for communities to prepare for potential challenges by identifying skills, establishing meeting points, and ensuring local cohesion.
Richard emphasized the importance of leveraging community resources and local knowledge in emergency planning, advocating for collaboration with existing groups rather than creating new structures. He suggested mapping existing skills and assets within a community, rather than trying to identify specific skills in advance, and highlighted the value of creating interconnected networks between parishes and local authorities. Graham shared information about the signals branch in army cadet forces, which could potentially provide valuable communication support during emergencies.
Richard discussed emergency communication strategies, highlighting the importance of radio systems and ham radio enthusiasts for maintaining contact during outages. He emphasized the need for a living emergency plan that is shared with and owned by the community, rather than kept on a shelf by local authorities. Richard recommended reviewing plans annually and conducting both desk-based and real-world exercises to ensure readiness for various emergencies.
Richard discussed the importance of community partnerships and support, emphasizing the value of open conversations and understanding neighbors' perspectives. Jonathan raised a question about engaging climate deniers, to which Richard suggested using current events like the Ukraine war as an entry point, highlighting themes of resilience and preparedness. Richard advised focusing on finding common ground and gently exploring differences without challenging individuals directly, suggesting that this approach can help reduce isolation and address conspiracy theories. Graham added that leaving nature to its own devices might also be a useful strategy for addressing climate concerns.
The meeting focused on various natural and man-made emergencies, including solar flares, volcanic eruptions, and pandemics, emphasizing the importance of preparedness and resilience. Richard highlighted the potential impact of a Carrington event on communications and power grids, while also discussing the need for community preparedness and the role of businesses in emergencies. Jack introduced his "Postcode Revolution" project, which aims to build community resilience at a hyper-local level, and mentioned he would adapt his upcoming presentation to focus on nature-based adaptation and transformation. The conversation ended with an agreement to share contact information for further collaboration on community resilience initiatives.
00:19:48 Andrew Maliphant Great Collaboration: Does anyone have experience of working with their local resilience forum?
00:22:50 Andrew Maliphant Great Collaboration: We have some emerging guidance around flood risk assessment, with many thanks to Richard for his involvement in drafting
00:23:18 Christine Allen: Kinver had a problem during the last storm. Trees down, not electric and no mobile phone connection.
00:25:25 Andrew Maliphant Great Collaboration: My impression is that any UK government is simply relying on the supermarket chains to keep food supply going
00:26:42 Christine Allen: Reacted to "Communities Prepared..." with 👍
00:27:29 Linda Aspey: Reacted to "Communities Prepared..." with 👍
00:29:57 Jacky Lawrence: Replying to "My impression is tha..."
I thought that if there was a food distribution emergency the CEO of the local county council had some powers they could use??
00:36:49 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: When creating your local Asset Register of resources available in an emergency, I recommend that you keep track of any Amateur Radio operators in your community: they may well become key communications facilities for you when all else fails
00:38:08 Linda Aspey: Reacted to "When creating your l..." with 👍
00:38:32 Jack Cooper: Reacted to "This is a good book ..." with 👍
00:38:37 Jack Cooper: Reacted to "When creating your l..." with 👍
00:47:42 Andrew Maliphant Great Collaboration: Replying to "My impression is tha..."
I'm not sure - under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 county councils are considered "Category 1 responders" to emergencies, and should make emergency plans, but it looks like only senior Government ministers can approve emergency regulations. But I'm not au fait with county council powers, and can't find the information easily online
00:48:18 Eamonn Dorling: Is there a list of skills that would be potentially helpful, and whether any skills require more than one in a group of 21?
00:48:54 Jacky Lawrence: Replying to "My impression is tha..."
00:50:17 Andrew Maliphant Great Collaboration: Section 101 of the Local Government Act 1972 allows town and parish councils to help other councils with their responsibilities - so we may not have a duty, but we have a power to get into emergency planning. Preferably of course with the approval of the other council!
00:53:36 Andrew Maliphant Great Collaboration: And we have the local knowledge, and should feel some responsibility to our local community's wellbeing regardless of what other bodies may or may not be doing - let's use our connections with other local authorities for some effective partnership working
00:58:09 Andrew Clegg. Martock, Somerset: I am a flood warden in Martock which flooded often and suddenly as it is the funnel from the river catchment to the Somerset levels. We have a sizeable team that has a lot to do when we get a sudden flood. An essential element in operation of our group is WhatsApp. It has not occurred to me how we would work without it. Any suggestions?
01:13:56 Christine Allen: Very informative. Thank you. Can I have an invite to next week please? 01:14:30 lisa scott: thank you
103 00:13:30.640 --> 00:13:40.150 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: So why don't you introduce yourself, Richard, and tell everybody how delighted you were to get someone to ask you to come and talk at no time. Notice at all.
104 00:13:40.810 --> 00:13:42.209 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: and we'll go from there.
105 00:13:42.390 --> 00:13:51.729 Richard Hood: Hello, everyone! My name is Richard. I'm from communities prepared. Some of you recognise your faces already, and we've had conversations previously.
106 00:13:51.930 --> 00:14:14.770 Richard Hood: Communities prepared is a national community preparing and resilience program. It's funded by the national lottery and the aim behind it is helped to help communities become more prepared and better resilient towards a range of different hazards that they may face. So we're not here to sort of
107 00:14:15.339 --> 00:14:19.029 Richard Hood: Preach what you should do, or you shouldn't do
108 00:14:19.140 --> 00:14:25.739 Richard Hood: we recognize that each community is unique and you will face challenges in your own unique ways.
109 00:14:25.870 --> 00:14:35.470 Richard Hood: But we're here to help and support. You have better outcomes and engage with how you, how you can, as I say, have better outcomes.
110 00:14:35.670 --> 00:15:00.809 Richard Hood: so that originally we started off, following the Somerset flooding and the Devon flooding in around 2,015 around that period. We started off, I think the end of 2016. So we're coming up, not this year, but next year to our 10th anniversary. And so we started off originally with flood volunteer training.
111 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:05.300 Richard Hood: And that was very much focused in those geographic areas.
112 00:15:05.340 --> 00:15:31.559 Richard Hood: From there. We've we've sort of expanded during Covid, and we were doing pandemic volunteer and how to deal with, and how volunteers and communities could get involved with that. And then we've continued to grow in the range of hazards and geographically around England. We cover the entirety, and then we also help and support into Wales and Scotland as well.
113 00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:46.540 Richard Hood: as I say, a range of different hazards, from flooding to heat waves to wildfire storms, and we also provide support around community emergency volunteer coordination.
114 00:15:46.570 --> 00:16:04.989 Richard Hood: emergency planning, risk assessment and other skills around that as well. So that's that's a very brief whistle. Stop tour about what we do. But I think here today, I think what we're going to do, because it was pretty short notice. And I think we're talking almost
115 00:16:05.180 --> 00:16:08.102 Richard Hood: almost less than 24 h now.
116 00:16:09.410 --> 00:16:20.980 Richard Hood: So I also think it's better to not necessarily have a Powerpoint and do a set script. So I think what we're gonna do today is, do it as a conversation piece
117 00:16:21.100 --> 00:16:25.850 Richard Hood: around the challenges. And what's going on in the Uk
118 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:33.589 Richard Hood: currently, and also what other countries do as well, because in a lot of ways. The Uk is a bit of an outlier
119 00:16:33.740 --> 00:16:51.489 Richard Hood: compared to other nations. Other nations, far more are community focused in their response and their resilience aspects. So I'm happy to talk about that as well, and then we can move into sort of like some some troubleshooting Q. And a. So
120 00:16:51.530 --> 00:17:10.239 Richard Hood: where your pain is where your challenges are in your community, on what you want to achieve, on what might be some of the challenges you face, or some of the blockers that you're coming up against and seeing if we can navigate some of that as well. So that's the plan up to now. Is that okay, Graham?
121 00:17:10.550 --> 00:17:21.719 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Absolutely. And my 1st question, which hopefully will start the ball rolling is to say, how much pushing do you have to do to persuade people they do need to make preparations.
122 00:17:23.040 --> 00:17:25.540 Richard Hood: Depends who you mean by people.
123 00:17:25.700 --> 00:17:26.890 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Well, councils, I guess.
124 00:17:26.890 --> 00:17:43.479 Richard Hood: Councils. It varies, it varies. I think there are some councils, parish and town councils that are very proactive, and I think historically, they used to have emergency plans in place.
125 00:17:43.740 --> 00:17:55.949 Richard Hood: I think what happened was during Covid. A lot of almost the emergency plans were put on the back burner and they moved to a response plan, and it was
126 00:17:56.390 --> 00:18:01.819 Richard Hood: creating something in the moment to deal with something that hadn't been
127 00:18:02.170 --> 00:18:07.940 Richard Hood: covered fully in the emergency planning beforehand. Then, since then.
128 00:18:08.300 --> 00:18:10.430 Richard Hood: you there's been a lot of
129 00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:17.730 Richard Hood: churn and change, and also the people who were involved in that response a lot of fatigue as well.
130 00:18:18.470 --> 00:18:23.049 Richard Hood: And so some places have taken that as a
131 00:18:23.760 --> 00:18:34.070 Richard Hood: a chance to renew and revisit old work that they had, and the old emergency plans, and all thinking, and to revamp that and revise that and move forwards.
132 00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:40.339 Richard Hood: Others are coming in quite fresh to it, and recognizing that
133 00:18:41.070 --> 00:18:44.459 Richard Hood: then they're possibly needing to reinvent the wheel.
134 00:18:44.840 --> 00:18:56.800 Richard Hood: if that makes sense, because they did have emergency plans. But they are so old, so antiquated, and have been lost in the sort of the the change of
135 00:18:56.930 --> 00:18:59.440 Richard Hood: people who've been involved in it as councillors.
136 00:19:00.560 --> 00:19:01.070 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Right.
137 00:19:01.070 --> 00:19:13.160 Richard Hood: On other approaches. We've got other parish and town councils where they're adamantly or vehemently against doing anything.
138 00:19:13.640 --> 00:19:26.309 Richard Hood: and they they strongly feel that they haven't got a role to play in this, there is no statutory obligation to do it. This is the role of your local authority, and this is the role of the emergency services.
139 00:19:26.500 --> 00:19:31.969 Richard Hood: which is a viewpoint. The challenge is
140 00:19:32.650 --> 00:19:47.130 Richard Hood: what what is currently happening in the Uk. As we've seen with such things as the ambulance crisis and the challenges around getting ambulances to even urban communities.
141 00:19:47.910 --> 00:19:56.779 Richard Hood: And what I would say is, there have been lots of instances during storms where it has taken
142 00:19:57.050 --> 00:20:04.290 Richard Hood: in excess of 72 h for the emergency services to be able to reach some remote communities.
143 00:20:05.100 --> 00:20:09.310 Richard Hood: We we are. We've had the luxury in the Uk
144 00:20:09.430 --> 00:20:17.539 Richard Hood: of having a very strong and resilience emergency service for for decades.
145 00:20:18.230 --> 00:20:19.929 Richard Hood: We haven't had
146 00:20:20.110 --> 00:20:34.209 Richard Hood: huge amounts of emergencies within local areas. What they've often been is a train crash or a plane crash, or something a spectacular accident or incident in that way.
147 00:20:34.870 --> 00:20:50.370 Richard Hood: But what we've been getting since 2,000, I would say, is an increasing challenge around flooding. And it's been the floods which are the the driver behind a lot of the emergency recognition within locales
148 00:20:50.670 --> 00:20:52.020 Richard Hood: that said
149 00:20:52.580 --> 00:21:03.840 Richard Hood: we had wildfires. The biggest ones, or the biggest start to them, were again in around 2,015, and that was the fires above Manchester in the moorlands.
150 00:21:04.090 --> 00:21:10.860 Richard Hood: and we started to worry then and ask the question because it was getting quite close to the urban area.
151 00:21:11.490 --> 00:21:13.840 Richard Hood: But then everybody forgot about it
152 00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:21.570 Richard Hood: until you saw smoke on the horizon around London, and they got the helicopters up, and all of a sudden
153 00:21:21.710 --> 00:21:23.429 Richard Hood: there was a lot more interest.
154 00:21:23.720 --> 00:21:29.719 Richard Hood: So I would say we're about 15 to 20 years behind flooding with wildfires.
155 00:21:30.100 --> 00:21:44.140 Richard Hood: But there is a big recognition now, certainly around the rural urban interface with the significant risk of wildfires that exist and is growing this year. They're expecting there's a
156 00:21:44.330 --> 00:21:52.520 Richard Hood: the met office. Long term weather forecast is expecting to be twice the chance of a heat wave than an average year.
157 00:21:52.840 --> 00:21:57.330 Richard Hood: So we're expecting a very hot summer, a very dry summer.
158 00:21:57.600 --> 00:22:05.489 Richard Hood: a very wildfire, high risk summer as well. I've sort of gone off on a tangent there. Sorry.
159 00:22:06.800 --> 00:22:08.333 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Well, I think there is.
160 00:22:08.790 --> 00:22:25.799 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: a degree of complacency here that we're all very used to having the Internet available, your Wi-fi available, your phones available, your food stores available, and then all panic lets loose, when suddenly you discover they're not there.
161 00:22:25.800 --> 00:22:40.060 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: and I would have thought that was quite a potent message to get to people that you can actually plan for going, for, say, I know 3 or 4 days without food supplies and without water, without electricity, without it becoming an absolute disaster.
162 00:22:40.130 --> 00:22:46.290 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: But those very simple steps seem to be very hard for people to convince themselves to actually take.
163 00:22:46.590 --> 00:22:54.469 Richard Hood: I think that again comes from the fact that the Uk is being quite privileged. I was going to say, I know people are typing in the chat.
164 00:22:54.690 --> 00:23:06.770 Richard Hood: If somebody wants to read those, if there's any for me with that comes through because I'm dyslexic. So when I struggle to monitor that, and to sort of manage the conversation.
165 00:23:06.950 --> 00:23:10.439 Richard Hood: But there is a we. The Uk. Has been quite privileged.
166 00:23:10.930 --> 00:23:21.200 Richard Hood: but even so recently America has moved to a mindset where it says, you need to be able to support, provide, and support yourself
167 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:25.470 Richard Hood: for up to 72 h without any external aid.
168 00:23:26.190 --> 00:23:35.390 Richard Hood: Australia has recently moved to from 3 days to 7 days, but it advises 14 days.
169 00:23:36.280 --> 00:23:36.800 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Woo.
170 00:23:36.800 --> 00:23:42.939 Richard Hood: You need, as individuals and communities to be able to help and support yourself.
171 00:23:43.070 --> 00:23:56.150 Richard Hood: If you look around Europe as well. Those conversations are being had. So Finland, Norway, Sweden, are all having very frank conversations that are saying.
172 00:23:56.270 --> 00:23:57.829 Richard Hood: if there's no power.
173 00:23:58.190 --> 00:24:07.100 Richard Hood: how are you going to be able to go to the shops. How are you going to be able to buy food? How are you going to be able to cook it? How are you going to be able to store it.
174 00:24:07.330 --> 00:24:09.759 Richard Hood: And it's having those frank conversations.
175 00:24:10.280 --> 00:24:17.080 Richard Hood: The problem is in the Uk. The Uk governments seem to, regardless of their color.
176 00:24:17.620 --> 00:24:31.980 Richard Hood: be unable or unwilling to have that frank conversation with the population, and I can say that, having had conversations at a national level around that the fear is
177 00:24:32.770 --> 00:24:39.509 Richard Hood: the political damage that having a frank conversation with the electorate would have.
178 00:24:39.990 --> 00:24:44.059 Richard Hood: So they're leaving it to organizations such as ourselves and others.
179 00:24:44.610 --> 00:24:52.940 Richard Hood: And they're sort of we're having to sort of go out and almost be seen as scaremongering.
180 00:24:53.620 --> 00:24:59.859 Richard Hood: But we aren't scaremongering. We're having the conversations that have been had in other countries.
181 00:25:01.470 --> 00:25:19.750 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: I find it amazing that the vast majority of people seem to be very happy if there's a leader that comes up and tells them what is going on rather than being terrified of telling them what's going on in case they get scared. I mean, we're all worried about what's going to happen, regardless of what the Government is saying.
182 00:25:19.950 --> 00:25:37.039 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: So it does seem to me that the onus is really upon each community to make arrangements to take care of itself, because it you never know, as you say, until your local, which floods are going to affect you, in which direction, or the wildfires, or the loss of power.
183 00:25:37.190 --> 00:25:48.369 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: But it does seem to make an awful lot of sense. And I hope that people will be looking at your website to take home some fundamental ideas of what they can be doing in their local community.
184 00:25:49.150 --> 00:26:16.150 Richard Hood: And thank you. I was going to say, if you want to come to the website, there's lots of information that's available. If you become a member and membership is free of charge. It's just a method of justifying our funding from the national lottery. So we can say we've got so many members. Our membership has gone up. This is helping to justify our funding, but you can also sign up, and I would strongly recommend doing the zoom
185 00:26:16.150 --> 00:26:29.839 Richard Hood: training sessions that we offer, and they are on, as I say, a multitude of different topics, and you know, by all means reach out to us. We can add more topics. We are a small team.
186 00:26:30.290 --> 00:26:43.000 Richard Hood: So so there is a bit of a time lag with things. But we're launching the power outage, which is, we used to have a utility failure, module which covered everything.
187 00:26:43.140 --> 00:26:45.680 Richard Hood: What we've now done is broken that out.
188 00:26:45.940 --> 00:26:49.310 eluned Lewi-Nichol: So we're creating a sweep of a suite of modules.
189 00:26:49.500 --> 00:26:53.859 Richard Hood: The power outage is going to be piloted tomorrow night.
190 00:26:54.170 --> 00:27:02.470 Richard Hood: We've got a water and sewage outage. That will be the next one to follow on. Then we're looking at a Comms failure
191 00:27:02.700 --> 00:27:14.720 Richard Hood: and focusing specifically on communication failure. And we're also developing another module which will be one that talks about a sort of a
192 00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:25.669 Richard Hood: a poly emergency. So it's when you have multiple emergencies and they're intertwined. So, for example, if you have power, outage
193 00:27:26.190 --> 00:27:29.290 Richard Hood: and water outage and Comms outage.
194 00:27:29.690 --> 00:27:45.800 Richard Hood: And you're getting those combinations that are going on. But if we talk about the concept of it as that polyemergency where you've got the multiple emergencies taking place. That could be a whole series of different things.
195 00:27:47.580 --> 00:27:48.640 Richard Hood: But yes.
196 00:27:48.640 --> 00:27:51.689 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Yeah, sorry. Just keeping an eye on the comments for you, and.
197 00:27:51.690 --> 00:27:52.190 Richard Hood: Oh, thank you!
198 00:27:52.190 --> 00:28:02.679 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Has got a comment that Kinra had a problem during the last storm trees down, no electric, no mobile phone. So, Christine, could you expand a little on that for us.
199 00:28:04.090 --> 00:28:08.090 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: because you know how ready was your community for that sort of outage.
200 00:28:08.510 --> 00:28:30.410 Christine Allen: Sorry. I just need to unmute myself. Yeah. When the storm I think it was storm, Dara, that caused all the problems. Kimber, I don't know if people know Kimva, but it's got an edge and is quite a wooded area. Kimber itself is in a basin and
201 00:28:31.636 --> 00:28:33.349 Christine Allen: we couldn't.
202 00:28:33.810 --> 00:28:59.629 Christine Allen: Well, somebody did get through to district, but there wasn't anybody actually in charge. That was anything to do with the strategic plan, and had no idea what to do, and it was just absolute chaos. As I say in my note, the phones were down, the electric was down. We've got a caravan park
203 00:29:00.140 --> 00:29:03.040 Christine Allen: right in the centre of Kimber.
204 00:29:03.180 --> 00:29:28.040 Christine Allen: and there were some people in the caravans that rely on equipment, breathing equipment and stuff. So we were really worried about them, but of course we didn't know who else there wasn't in the community that would need help. And how do we get power to them? Who's got a generator and things like that.
205 00:29:28.110 --> 00:29:41.430 Christine Allen: And because the phones were down and nobody could talk to anybody else, as we normally would do through mobile phones, phone them up and sort it out. So there were a few people.
206 00:29:41.510 --> 00:29:46.279 Christine Allen: a few of the councillors, actually, that got together and sort of did a run around to
207 00:29:46.870 --> 00:29:53.919 Christine Allen: to do what they could, especially for the one that they knew had got essential equipment in their caravan to keep them alive.
208 00:29:54.200 --> 00:30:19.920 Christine Allen: And it was a problem that that was really raised and has raised its head now at district. And of course, bt, as they're doing at the moment, are getting rid of all the telephone boxes, and we've got one in the centre of the village which they were wanting to get rid of, and particularly because of that event. It showed that
209 00:30:20.290 --> 00:30:47.769 Christine Allen: we need the the telephone box still. Because the Bt lines were still up and running. And the only way you could phone anybody was by going to the Bt. Box, and it was used a few times, actually, during those 2 days. So it showed that it was essential. And thankfully. They've decided to keep our British telephone box in the village.
210 00:30:48.430 --> 00:30:48.950 Richard Hood: Well.
211 00:30:50.660 --> 00:30:56.620 Christine Allen: It's just a difficult time, and it really showed how
212 00:30:56.760 --> 00:31:09.209 Christine Allen: delicate things are. And if things aren't in place, I mean 12 years ago, when I joined the Parish Council, one of my 1st questions was, Have we got a strategic plan?
213 00:31:09.470 --> 00:31:14.620 Christine Allen: And the answer was, Oh, District, deal with that. You don't need to worry about it.
214 00:31:15.800 --> 00:31:20.649 Richard Hood: What I was going to say is just touching on the on the phone situation. To start with
215 00:31:20.800 --> 00:31:24.649 Richard Hood: currently all the old copper lines
216 00:31:24.860 --> 00:31:28.370 Richard Hood: the landlines are being replaced by fiber. Optic.
217 00:31:28.370 --> 00:31:29.890 Christine Allen: Yeah, being ripped out.
218 00:31:29.890 --> 00:31:34.950 Richard Hood: Yeah, so every phone line has will need power in order.
219 00:31:36.030 --> 00:31:36.570 Christine Allen: So.
220 00:31:36.570 --> 00:31:40.110 Richard Hood: When we lose power we lose Comms. There is
221 00:31:40.720 --> 00:31:55.259 Richard Hood: a requirement that your phone providers should be able to provide a battery backup system. If there is an essential need for communication during a power outage.
222 00:31:55.530 --> 00:31:57.519 Richard Hood: But what they're relying on
223 00:31:57.630 --> 00:32:06.199 Richard Hood: is that everybody has a mobile phone and they're relying on the mobile phone networks having a battery that lasts
224 00:32:06.390 --> 00:32:15.620 Richard Hood: for a decent length of time and that the mobile phone network doesn't fall over.
225 00:32:16.229 --> 00:32:41.640 Richard Hood: I think we're all more realistic on this call than that optimism. But, as I say, there are opportunities you can. You can request a resilient phone is what it's called and what it has is a battery backup, and that is for people who, as I say, who need need a communication for some reason, whether that's medical or so on.
226 00:32:41.740 --> 00:32:48.639 Richard Hood: And also where mobile phone signal is not reliable.
227 00:32:49.470 --> 00:33:08.950 Richard Hood: So that's something to consider other things. You know, you mentioned around that you sort of having that hybrid or that multiple emergency when you had the storm hit, you've got damage from the storm. You've got loss of power, loss of comms, and so on.
228 00:33:09.070 --> 00:33:14.389 Richard Hood: What I would say to you is one thing that is really, really useful to create
229 00:33:14.610 --> 00:33:18.649 Richard Hood: it. Well, there's several things here. One is a hub and spoke
230 00:33:18.830 --> 00:33:35.949 Richard Hood: structure within your community. So within the Parish Council you look at the central hub, or the resilience hub, or the emergency response hub for your community. But then look to have spoke spokes within the wider community itself.
231 00:33:36.120 --> 00:33:42.980 Richard Hood: and they are your groups. They are local key
232 00:33:43.510 --> 00:33:57.579 Richard Hood: locations. Whether that is a local pub that might be an outlier in further out in the community, and so on. Those those hubs are really essential for getting the comms around out there and the messaging out there.
233 00:33:58.100 --> 00:34:17.429 Richard Hood: Other things to be aware of is to create a local asset register. So a register of both people and equipment and potentially locations that are willing and happy to be supportive during an emergency.
234 00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:22.400 Richard Hood: There is what we would look at is there's 3 tiers of volunteers.
235 00:34:23.300 --> 00:34:38.120 Richard Hood: There is your. There's the traditional volunteer who is trained and is a member of an organization and is a known quantity and has had training and is part of a coordinated play pre-planned response.
236 00:34:38.989 --> 00:34:48.950 Richard Hood: On the other side of that you've got your spontaneous volunteers that come out of the woodwork at a moment's notice. Something's happening. Crisis is happening. What do you need done?
237 00:34:49.380 --> 00:34:55.519 Richard Hood: They're really useful. But the problem is, the challenge is about them being an unknown quantity.
238 00:34:55.800 --> 00:35:08.340 Richard Hood: And so they you don't know what training they've had. You don't know what they can do. You don't know what you should be asking them to do, because if you ask somebody to do something you take on the liability for that.
239 00:35:08.800 --> 00:35:12.150 Richard Hood: So what we've suggested is, there's a 3rd group.
240 00:35:12.620 --> 00:35:27.700 Richard Hood: and this 3rd group is your retained volunteers. They're people who are skill rich and might be resource, rich and capacity rich, but are often time poor.
241 00:35:27.860 --> 00:35:38.640 Richard Hood: They don't want to be part of an organization where they are endlessly turning up to meetings or being asked, you know, to comment on a weekly or monthly basis.
242 00:35:38.950 --> 00:35:54.449 Richard Hood: But they are members of a community that might be your doctors, your nurses, your tree surgeons, your plant and machinery operators, these people, your tree surgeons, as I say as well, that are key members and have key skills.
243 00:35:55.880 --> 00:36:06.789 Richard Hood: And you can call upon and access in an emergency for a specific task. And you see them as the expert in that process.
244 00:36:07.050 --> 00:36:11.930 Richard Hood: So you're effectively commissioning their professionalism
245 00:36:12.210 --> 00:36:17.740 Richard Hood: during the emergency, and they are making a judgment call what they do
246 00:36:18.030 --> 00:36:22.960 Richard Hood: if they can respond to it, or if they can't, so it's falling on them
247 00:36:23.550 --> 00:36:25.450 Richard Hood: to say no or yes.
248 00:36:26.260 --> 00:36:44.599 Richard Hood: rather than you tasking them to go and chainsaw a tree. You're saying there's some trees down over here. These are the people who are tree surgeons. Send them a message and go. There's trees down over here. Can you organize? Is there any chance you can organize. Can you have a look at them?
249 00:36:45.220 --> 00:36:49.410 Richard Hood: It's their choice, then what they do about that.
250 00:36:50.100 --> 00:37:19.529 Christine Allen: I must say we do. We do have a really good community, not only just in the the few houses around here where I live, which is slightly out of Kimber village. But during that storm we had a tree come down just around the corner from me, and somebody called it into district and A word went out on the Whatsapp group.
251 00:37:19.580 --> 00:37:28.729 Christine Allen: and within 20 min the tree had been dismantled. It had cleared the road. The bus could carry on going round the road, and.
252 00:37:28.730 --> 00:37:32.159 Richard Hood: And somebody's over the moon with a car full of logs.
253 00:37:32.160 --> 00:37:36.228 Christine Allen: Yes, yes, some of them are in my garden.
254 00:37:36.680 --> 00:37:38.380 Richard Hood: You were the culprit.
255 00:37:39.270 --> 00:37:51.710 Richard Hood: So so we could see with that one incident that so many things that we can learn and how we can use. The other part is the importance of the human human community knowledge.
256 00:37:51.840 --> 00:37:59.199 Richard Hood: We talk about having a vulnerable register, and different local authorities will say different things.
257 00:37:59.630 --> 00:38:14.070 Richard Hood: Some local authorities want you to give them their information and feed all this, you know, vulnerable, resident and vulnerable location. Information in others will be, don't do it. Don't keep it. We don't want to know anything.
258 00:38:14.070 --> 00:38:18.989 Christine Allen: Well, we were told by district we can't have one. We're not allowed to hold one.
259 00:38:19.300 --> 00:38:25.940 Christine Allen: you know, with Gpt. Gdpr rubbish, you know we're not allowed to have people's details.
260 00:38:25.940 --> 00:38:31.300 Richard Hood: Kind of they agree to it. Gdpr is a method to keep people's data safe
261 00:38:31.410 --> 00:38:53.209 Richard Hood: and to allow you to share it. It's not there as a mechanism to prevent it. So you would need to let people know what the data is you're going to be storing. Why, you're going to store it, and how you're going to do it and keep it protected. And that's ring fenced. And people have the choice whether that data is passed to you or not.
262 00:38:53.750 --> 00:39:01.999 Richard Hood: That's that's that part. But the other part is, if you believe somebody is in potential harm.
263 00:39:02.580 --> 00:39:11.960 Richard Hood: Gdpr specifically says you can share that if you have a belief that that person needs help, you can share it.
264 00:39:14.480 --> 00:39:18.499 Richard Hood: And so so it's as simple as that. But what I would say to you is
265 00:39:18.720 --> 00:39:24.420 Richard Hood: actually keeping records and databases it.
266 00:39:25.260 --> 00:39:32.889 Richard Hood: It isn't a living entity, it isn't. It's it's something that's almost out of date. As soon as it's created.
267 00:39:33.300 --> 00:39:48.419 Richard Hood: So actually, it's the community network and the community not shared living knowledge that exists. That is essential. And then that needs to be pooled and acted upon
268 00:39:48.800 --> 00:39:50.640 Richard Hood: at the time of need.
269 00:39:51.090 --> 00:40:06.030 Richard Hood: because we're going to get people who, you know, vulnerable people. That age is one thing. So we're looking at people over 65. And we're looking at the age. Well, they aren't going to get any younger. So they're going to stay in that list
270 00:40:06.380 --> 00:40:07.969 Richard Hood: for a period of time.
271 00:40:08.870 --> 00:40:17.210 Richard Hood: But you have transient vulnerabilities as well. So people recovering from surgery, people who are pregnant
272 00:40:17.340 --> 00:40:21.950 Richard Hood: people with young children, people who are just moving into the area
273 00:40:22.760 --> 00:40:24.789 Richard Hood: and don't know what's going on.
274 00:40:25.070 --> 00:40:30.940 Richard Hood: People who might be who who are on welfare support because they've lost their job.
275 00:40:31.130 --> 00:40:39.180 Richard Hood: Hopefully, they're going to get another one. But there's lots of data there, or information that is going to change
276 00:40:39.410 --> 00:40:41.140 Richard Hood: very, very rapidly.
277 00:40:42.020 --> 00:40:47.830 Richard Hood: and there's no with the best will in the in the world. We can't keep on top of that.
278 00:40:48.140 --> 00:40:53.470 Richard Hood: And so the best way is to have a network that is able to be.
279 00:40:53.950 --> 00:41:01.030 Richard Hood: draw that, pull that information together at a moment's notice and to identify who is struggling
280 00:41:01.140 --> 00:41:13.179 Richard Hood: on what is their need. So you're looking at doing door knocks and welfare checks and needs assessments and then, pooling that information rapidly, Graham, you've got your hands up.
281 00:41:15.890 --> 00:41:17.239 Richard Hood: You're on mute.
282 00:41:19.030 --> 00:41:40.070 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: I just wanted to point out, 1st of all, that people are making contributions in the chat. And there's 1 just come in from Linda that suggests there's a wonderful book about how us communities responded to Hurricane Sandy, and all the sorts of lessons that we could learn from there. So I just point that to people. By the way, for those of you who are not familiar with these sessions.
283 00:41:40.070 --> 00:41:50.250 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: we do record everything and then make it available to everyone afterwards. So everything that's in the chat. All the comments that were being made would all be available to everyone after this, if they needed
284 00:41:50.330 --> 00:41:56.870 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: the second thing, Gary was to give you a segue into your No. 21 project.
285 00:41:57.130 --> 00:41:59.700 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: and thought perhaps you could talk to us about that. Please.
286 00:41:59.890 --> 00:42:12.050 Richard Hood: Yeah. So if I go with the 1st 1 first, st I think some of the really good knowledge to take away from America is the Cert teams, the community emergency response teams. Now.
287 00:42:12.200 --> 00:42:21.380 Richard Hood: a couple of local authorities or Lrfs within the Uk have jumped on that bandwagon and have taken the name cert
288 00:42:21.560 --> 00:42:30.209 Richard Hood: and have applied it to volunteers within their community. And that's not really the case. They aren't really cert teams.
289 00:42:30.360 --> 00:42:32.270 Richard Hood: Cert teams in America
290 00:42:32.410 --> 00:43:00.220 Richard Hood: are community groups that have been trained and are prepared to quite a high standard, including urban search and rescue. But they've been trained by sending a community member to Fema, who has then been trained, comes back and comes train the trainer into that community, and they are registered, and they are expected to act at a certain way, but that's something that may come into the Uk at that level.
291 00:43:00.410 --> 00:43:04.889 Richard Hood: The other one is what's happening in New Zealand and
292 00:43:05.090 --> 00:43:13.179 Richard Hood: Australia, and that's very much more the the collective ad hoc of a community that comes together
293 00:43:13.470 --> 00:43:20.719 Richard Hood: and it's recognizing. And and they put things up as simply a need, a need and an offer board.
294 00:43:20.940 --> 00:43:34.489 Richard Hood: and it's it's simply a whiteboard, and people just stick on what they need. And somebody else writes what they can offer, and we try to match those up that can be a massive, massive help, and and so on.
295 00:43:34.650 --> 00:43:57.750 Richard Hood: So segueing away into the No. 21. This isn't an official sort of program at the moment. But it's something that I'm working on. It's the concept of knowing 21 people within your ability to reach them. So what I mean by that is walking distance. So if you know 21 people that you can get to
296 00:43:58.310 --> 00:44:04.150 Richard Hood: if you've got no power, no Comms and no anything. You know the situation is is dire.
297 00:44:04.380 --> 00:44:06.549 Richard Hood: If you can reach 21 people
298 00:44:06.810 --> 00:44:15.309 Richard Hood: and they can reach 21 people within 3 links. Typically, you've found somebody who is a trauma doctor
299 00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:18.279 Richard Hood: and 2 people who were a nurse
300 00:44:18.470 --> 00:44:23.860 Richard Hood: within your network. And you've got a lot of other skills within that network.
301 00:44:24.020 --> 00:44:27.169 Richard Hood: But if you can imagine that within your community
302 00:44:27.290 --> 00:44:31.299 Richard Hood: that you are pushing, you know you're you're you're effectively
303 00:44:31.700 --> 00:44:41.900 Richard Hood: taking the virtual social media and turning it back on its head back to what it used to be, which was knowing your neighbors.
304 00:44:42.340 --> 00:44:45.129 Richard Hood: and by knowing the people around you
305 00:44:45.240 --> 00:44:52.799 Richard Hood: what their skills are and what their vulnerabilities are because everybody has a vulnerability.
306 00:44:52.910 --> 00:45:19.890 Richard Hood: It might have been, you know, Jack, I'm going to pick on you for a moment, but you're looking, you know as if you haven't got many vulnerabilities. But everybody does. It could have been. Jack went out on a Friday night. It's Saturday morning, and there's a flood, and he had a bit too many on Friday night, and isn't 100% with it. And so it could be as something as transient as that.
307 00:45:20.160 --> 00:45:25.169 Richard Hood: But it's about knowing people and knowing them as individuals.
308 00:45:25.410 --> 00:45:28.040 Richard Hood: and knowing what their strengths and weaknesses are.
309 00:45:28.700 --> 00:45:36.000 Richard Hood: and how we then, as that 21 person group knows 21 more people.
310 00:45:36.580 --> 00:45:38.909 Richard Hood: and we can reach out within that
311 00:45:39.010 --> 00:45:40.980 Richard Hood: to help and support each other.
312 00:45:41.570 --> 00:45:46.110 Richard Hood: And ultimately, you know, we're we're looking at
313 00:45:46.270 --> 00:45:56.590 Richard Hood: what happens, how? What is the lowest form of, or the the lowest level of coordination that can happen?
314 00:45:56.750 --> 00:46:00.579 Richard Hood: And so you're really looking at street level or hamlet level.
315 00:46:01.100 --> 00:46:04.479 Richard Hood: then into your parish and tank councils.
316 00:46:04.670 --> 00:46:09.960 Richard Hood: And those are the blocks that actually, where people live.
317 00:46:10.830 --> 00:46:28.520 Richard Hood: So we're looking at. Think about all the people that exist and provide those services in a wider community. You're looking at members of the police members of the Fire and Rescue Service ambulance service, your local doctor, your local Gp. They live in your community.
318 00:46:29.960 --> 00:46:47.329 Richard Hood: Think of them as 2 levels. Think of them as, yes, they've got those professional skills. But they're a member of your community as well. And that's where, if both systems, those wider systems start to struggle and aren't able to continue for whatever reason
319 00:46:48.390 --> 00:46:57.469 Richard Hood: you can bring those community members and have a system or a mechanism in place that will allow those people with those skill sets
320 00:46:58.140 --> 00:47:02.119 Richard Hood: to be activated and utilized in an emergency.
321 00:47:03.890 --> 00:47:11.210 Richard Hood: So that's where the No. 21 it comes from. It's basically knowing 21 people that you can get to
322 00:47:11.410 --> 00:47:16.419 Richard Hood: and gas for help or offer help and support, too, and then scaling that up.
323 00:47:16.990 --> 00:47:17.740 Richard Hood: Okay.
324 00:47:18.780 --> 00:47:26.390 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: I think the other thing that we discussed yesterday was assuming that there is a complete Comms breakdown. Then
325 00:47:26.810 --> 00:47:45.840 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: how are people going to get together. And where are they going to get together? You need an agreed space beforehand, so that everyone knows that within 6 h of an emergency taking place. Then the Village hall has become manned, and is a focal point for information and and help, or whatever.
326 00:47:46.650 --> 00:47:59.500 Richard Hood: Yes, I would just sort of answer one question. Yes, under the civil Contingencies Act. The Parish and town councils do not have a duty at the present.
327 00:48:00.170 --> 00:48:04.180 Richard Hood: and that is the situation. So I do want to make that clear. However.
328 00:48:05.570 --> 00:48:17.409 Richard Hood: if we have some of the challenges and the sort of multiple, complex challenges. Over wide, vast, swept swathes of the Uk.
329 00:48:18.470 --> 00:48:25.519 Richard Hood: You, you will become essential in ensuring that your community has some cohesion.
330 00:48:26.870 --> 00:48:30.770 Richard Hood: because we're already looking at the emergency services
331 00:48:31.060 --> 00:48:37.400 Richard Hood: are looking to prove to do the most good for the most people, so
332 00:48:37.550 --> 00:48:41.480 Richard Hood: that will be closer to their bases.
333 00:48:42.060 --> 00:48:47.259 Richard Hood: and it'll be closer to the hospital. It'll be so. They don't need to travel far.
334 00:48:47.570 --> 00:48:52.270 Richard Hood: and it'll be those larger urban areas where there is a lot more population.
335 00:48:52.570 --> 00:48:55.459 Richard Hood: And that's where they will start their focus from.
336 00:48:56.120 --> 00:48:59.630 Richard Hood: So we need to consider how
337 00:48:59.940 --> 00:49:07.180 Richard Hood: we can, we can operate in the absence of potentially external support for a period of time
338 00:49:07.830 --> 00:49:13.110 Richard Hood: going on to your your your question. So the idea is that.
339 00:49:13.340 --> 00:49:22.190 Richard Hood: imagine your Comms failed within your community. Imagine your power was out, and and that sort of scenario, when you're doing your planning
340 00:49:22.490 --> 00:49:25.100 Richard Hood: plan to have fail safes in place.
341 00:49:25.450 --> 00:49:35.419 Richard Hood: So you fail in a safe mechanism. So if you, in the absence of a phone call or a Whatsapp message, or a knock on the door.
342 00:49:35.700 --> 00:49:38.519 Richard Hood: Where will there be a meeting point?
343 00:49:38.750 --> 00:49:50.940 Richard Hood: And again, if you come back to that spoken hub sort of approach. You end up with a community. It's like where I live. I live in a hamlet where there's there's 8 houses.
344 00:49:51.310 --> 00:50:02.919 Richard Hood: Well, what would happen is, it would probably be me that goes, knocks on the doors, checks on people, sees what's going on, and I become that node for the hamlet.
345 00:50:03.880 --> 00:50:16.049 Richard Hood: and if then I knew where to go, I would then go to the Parish and Parish Council Meeting Point, and so then I could feed that information in that I've gathered
346 00:50:16.930 --> 00:50:20.800 Richard Hood: into the Potion Town Council, and then
347 00:50:20.980 --> 00:50:23.410 Richard Hood: can get help and support from that.
348 00:50:23.650 --> 00:50:30.429 Richard Hood: But I would certainly say, remember your community. You're there to serve and support the community.
349 00:50:31.310 --> 00:50:34.150 Richard Hood: Try not to do everything yourselves.
350 00:50:35.050 --> 00:50:45.480 Richard Hood: Try to recognize the skill and the empowerment within your community. Already within the parish or the town, and
351 00:50:46.150 --> 00:50:49.820 Richard Hood: you want to help and support your local groups.
352 00:50:50.370 --> 00:50:55.610 Richard Hood: be drawn in and consider what they can do during an emergency.
353 00:50:56.740 --> 00:51:04.809 Richard Hood: And think of it in that way. Whether that is a designated community Emergency Volunteer Group or a Resilience group.
354 00:51:05.070 --> 00:51:13.479 Richard Hood: or whether it's something like the Local Women's Institute, or the Bowls Club, or whatever it is
355 00:51:13.590 --> 00:51:17.550 Richard Hood: it might be the Young Farms Association with within the parish.
356 00:51:18.150 --> 00:51:21.779 Richard Hood: What can they do and challenge them to say.
357 00:51:22.160 --> 00:51:24.600 Richard Hood: you know, if something goes wrong.
358 00:51:25.010 --> 00:51:26.910 Richard Hood: what could you do to help?
359 00:51:27.710 --> 00:51:36.970 Richard Hood: What plans could you put in place as a group of people with skills, with resource
360 00:51:38.080 --> 00:51:43.749 Richard Hood: that could come and help, and then you, as a parish council, look towards the coordination
361 00:51:44.310 --> 00:51:46.879 Richard Hood: of those assets within your community.
362 00:51:48.420 --> 00:52:02.620 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Yeah, that's that's really good. There's a pertinent question in the chat, Richard, from Eamon that says, Is there a list of skills that would be potentially helpful, and whether any skills require more than one in a group of 21.
363 00:52:04.713 --> 00:52:09.409 Richard Hood: What I would say to you is, don't, when it comes to the note 21.
364 00:52:09.620 --> 00:52:26.969 Richard Hood: Don't think about trying to find a doctor, a tree surgeon, or something like that. The whole point is is to just interconnect with 21 people and find out what skills they have and what support needs they might also have as well.
365 00:52:27.140 --> 00:52:31.359 Richard Hood: The idea is that 21 people then go out and know
366 00:52:31.790 --> 00:52:37.080 Richard Hood: 21 people more. And so it's about those connections.
367 00:52:37.560 --> 00:52:44.990 Richard Hood: maybe into 2, 2 to 3 levels that get you the tree surgeon rather than
368 00:52:45.130 --> 00:52:48.180 Richard Hood: knowing a tree surgeon within the 21 people
369 00:52:48.380 --> 00:52:53.540 Richard Hood: when it comes to the your local asset register again.
370 00:52:53.700 --> 00:53:03.440 Richard Hood: It isn't. It isn't about determining a list of skills and resources you want within your community.
371 00:53:03.980 --> 00:53:09.530 Richard Hood: It's recognizing what already exists, and it's mapping that.
372 00:53:09.790 --> 00:53:12.110 Richard Hood: and then you might end up with.
373 00:53:12.360 --> 00:53:17.529 Richard Hood: you know it's a rural. It might be a rural one. You might have 10 Tree Surgeons.
374 00:53:17.670 --> 00:53:31.559 Richard Hood: or you might live in a an urban area. And you've got 15 project managers, you know it. It's whatever is in your community. And then, recognizing that.
375 00:53:31.700 --> 00:53:34.210 Richard Hood: And so then, as a community.
376 00:53:34.330 --> 00:53:38.609 Richard Hood: you have your strengths, you have your abilities that you can do.
377 00:53:38.780 --> 00:53:41.639 Richard Hood: and then you have neighbouring communities.
378 00:53:42.890 --> 00:53:51.330 Richard Hood: So what we want to do is to have you within your your local hub and spoke methodology.
379 00:53:51.680 --> 00:53:53.010 Richard Hood: Well, then.
380 00:53:53.430 --> 00:54:04.969 Richard Hood: you're connected to other parishes, and you're connected to the local authority. And so you end up with this interconnected network that is able to self heal
381 00:54:05.200 --> 00:54:09.320 Richard Hood: during an emergency that can help and support each other.
382 00:54:11.630 --> 00:54:19.339 Richard Hood: So if you haven't got those skills in your community, another community may well have.
383 00:54:20.430 --> 00:54:28.360 Richard Hood: So you end up with this constant offer and need at a street level
384 00:54:28.790 --> 00:54:40.729 Richard Hood: at a parish level, at your district level and interdependency. So you end up with this network of communication going on. And it's that
385 00:54:41.240 --> 00:54:50.600 Richard Hood: that becomes the panacea to the problem. It becomes the solution because you're actually talking and have a method
386 00:54:51.010 --> 00:54:55.640 Richard Hood: of saying what you need to others, and then they can help and support you.
387 00:54:58.490 --> 00:55:23.889 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Great. I've got a piece of information for people which they may not be aware of, which is that within the army side of the cadet force at your local schools. There is a signals branch, and they will have a or they may well have a radio system that is capable of talking to all the schools across the country. So you do have yet another means of communication available. Should
388 00:55:24.060 --> 00:55:33.810 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: all sorts of, like the mobile phone system go down and provided you've got some batteries around that can keep the radio systems going. Then you've got a means of communicating with the world.
389 00:55:34.511 --> 00:55:38.889 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: And I just mentioned that in passing, in case people hadn't thought of the radio.
390 00:55:39.330 --> 00:55:44.660 Richard Hood: Worst case you could always rig up a dynamo from the hamsters in the science lab.
391 00:55:45.245 --> 00:55:45.830 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: So.
392 00:55:45.830 --> 00:56:04.449 Richard Hood: It's all common, but it was just a comical one, but there are mechanisms you'd be able to deal with that. What I would also say is, you've got ham radio enthusiasts within the local community. There are organizations such as Raynet.
393 00:56:04.780 --> 00:56:13.440 Richard Hood: but Raynet, during a widespread outage, would be drawn in to deal with the Lrf level
394 00:56:13.480 --> 00:56:36.660 Richard Hood: and setting up hubs within an Lrf. In order to get comms around the wider area. I'm very much aware that that is the plan in a lot of locales that the the voluntary organizations will be drawn in to that larger response.
395 00:56:36.760 --> 00:56:46.230 Richard Hood: So that's why I'm saying yes, we, you know, during peacetime, so to speak, speak to them. Get them involved, help you
396 00:56:46.970 --> 00:56:47.770 Richard Hood: book.
397 00:56:48.310 --> 00:56:53.860 Richard Hood: Be aware. If that's a local or a local area event.
398 00:56:54.070 --> 00:57:07.470 Richard Hood: they will be able to help and support and look to set up, you know, emergency mobile masts or so on to help get communication going, or Wi-fi or whatever. But if it's a larger scale event
399 00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:12.050 Richard Hood: that won't be coming, because it will be being used by others.
400 00:57:14.410 --> 00:57:30.850 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: So bear in mind, Richard, that a lot of people like to have a document to refer to. Does your website support a list of all these ideas somewhere. So people can say, Here's a check off list. Let's go through it and see which applies to our particular geography and community.
401 00:57:31.260 --> 00:57:54.019 Richard Hood: Yes and no, not to the degree that I'm talking about now is what I will simply say. We have got an emergency planning workshop, and the idea of that is, there is a workbook that goes alongside it. And we were involved with developing the London Resilience Toolkit, which is sort of a step by step process for developing an emergency plan in effect.
402 00:57:54.070 --> 00:58:09.439 Richard Hood: But we've got some more practical versions of that as well. And so if you went on the emergency planning workshop. It's a 2 sessions piece, and that would help you either revisit one you've already got.
403 00:58:09.540 --> 00:58:22.460 Richard Hood: or to start a new one moving forwards. We do have a risk assessment or a risk management sort of session as well. And there are other
404 00:58:22.730 --> 00:58:29.960 Richard Hood: elements that we offer as well, and there is a government template. What I would say to you is
405 00:58:31.990 --> 00:58:34.929 Richard Hood: you? There are lots of templates out there
406 00:58:35.370 --> 00:58:43.499 Richard Hood: that yet local authorities quite often will come up with one for themselves, or an Lrf. Will come up with one for themselves.
407 00:58:43.720 --> 00:58:53.170 Richard Hood: I've seen some which are really simple and really straightforward, others you would struggle.
408 00:58:53.710 --> 00:59:01.990 Richard Hood: If you were in charge of the British Armed forces to enact and fill out as an emergency plan, they are so complicated
409 00:59:02.890 --> 00:59:10.410 Richard Hood: you need to have a team of professionals in order to do it. What I would say to you is.
410 00:59:11.350 --> 00:59:13.640 Richard Hood: any plan is better than no plan.
411 00:59:14.990 --> 00:59:17.359 Richard Hood: The plan is as good as it
412 00:59:17.890 --> 00:59:20.919 Richard Hood: as good as this is to be used.
413 00:59:21.280 --> 00:59:45.200 Richard Hood: You need to not have it on a shelf. You need to share it with the community, so the community can see it. It is the community's emergency plan, not the Parish and Town Council's emergency plan. It should be owned, and it needs to be a living document that the community understand, and then are more likely to interact with and offer to help and support with.
414 00:59:46.170 --> 00:59:55.920 Richard Hood: Put it up there as a straw dog, not man, sort of thing, so that the community can say, Hang on. This isn't going to work
415 00:59:56.180 --> 01:00:02.120 Richard Hood: because of XY and Z, or there's a better plan here, and we can. We can make it better.
416 01:00:02.360 --> 01:00:06.699 Richard Hood: So please don't be afraid to share
417 01:00:06.800 --> 01:00:11.029 Richard Hood: your community's emergency plan and share it with
418 01:00:11.320 --> 01:00:22.510 Richard Hood: those statutory responding organizations, so share it with the local authority, share it the fire and rescue service. If you have flood volunteers within your community.
419 01:00:22.760 --> 01:00:40.469 Richard Hood: let the fire and rescue service, know that you have them and what skills they have, what level they're expecting to do. So it might be that you've decided that you want to have pumping operations, because that is appropriate for your locale.
420 01:00:41.360 --> 01:00:44.150 Richard Hood: Well, the fire and rescue service need to know that
421 01:00:44.700 --> 01:00:48.120 Richard Hood: all these things are helping and supporting.
422 01:00:48.420 --> 01:00:58.640 Richard Hood: But, as I say, it needs to be a living document. It can't sit on a shelf. It should be reviewed periodically. I would say it should be reviewed worst case annually.
423 01:00:59.990 --> 01:01:17.029 Richard Hood: It should be reviewed. If there's an incident, it should be reviewed when there has been a training for it, and you want to have desk-based training, a desk-based exercise within your community, but also exercise elements of it in the real world.
424 01:01:17.440 --> 01:01:20.980 Richard Hood: so that your community can see things happening.
425 01:01:21.760 --> 01:01:27.239 Richard Hood: So run a rehearsal as if there was a flood, or there was a wildfire.
426 01:01:27.760 --> 01:01:31.049 Richard Hood: you know, access roads being cut off.
427 01:01:31.240 --> 01:01:37.150 Richard Hood: Yes, I'm not saying necessarily block a road. But you simulate that. Yeah.
428 01:01:37.850 --> 01:01:47.689 Richard Hood: you can bring in the emergency services and the emergency services would quite often be very supportive of coming to a community and rehearsing
429 01:01:48.160 --> 01:01:51.609 Richard Hood: because they get to see it in a community.
430 01:01:51.740 --> 01:01:54.430 Richard Hood: They get to do what they do in a community.
431 01:01:54.910 --> 01:02:00.710 Richard Hood: but it allows that partnership working, and it reassures both parties in what can happen.
432 01:02:01.220 --> 01:02:04.080 Richard Hood: and so on, and they'll help and support in that way.
433 01:02:06.510 --> 01:02:14.400 Richard Hood: Are there any other questions or any other problems people are having, or anything that people have thought of, that they would like to bring up or ask.
434 01:02:21.710 --> 01:02:47.660 Jonathan Wise: Yeah, this is fascinating. Thank you so much. I guess I love the idea of the note. Note 21. And yet some of the people I live with are quite some climate deniers. Some people quite skeptical about things. I don't know them particularly well. I guess it's just a question if you've got any advice for how to kind of engage your neighbors in a topic which you feel like they might not want to engage in.
435 01:02:47.660 --> 01:02:49.850 Richard Hood: Oh, actually.
436 01:02:50.740 --> 01:02:57.550 Richard Hood: don't necessarily start with that topic, and you've got the great in. You've got the great ins at the moment.
437 01:02:57.680 --> 01:03:06.149 Richard Hood: So at the moment. Look at what's happening in Ukraine. Look at the conversation around the war footing that the Uk is moving on to.
438 01:03:06.650 --> 01:03:13.830 Richard Hood: That is a brilliant opener in somebody who's a climate, you know, who doesn't believe in climate change
439 01:03:14.170 --> 01:03:23.170 Richard Hood: because it's got nothing to do with the climate, but it still touches on resilience. It still touches on preparedness, it still touches on that emergency aspect.
440 01:03:23.620 --> 01:03:30.809 Richard Hood: but also the idea of a concept of No. 21 isn't just about a a
441 01:03:31.920 --> 01:03:43.190 Richard Hood: knowing what they can do and what you can do, and having a conversation about the challenges. It's about understanding your neighbour understanding the person who lives next to you or down the road
442 01:03:43.980 --> 01:04:00.609 Richard Hood: and having some human contact. So it's also feeding into reducing the sense of isolation and the challenges around mental health as well, so there's so much around that, and it isn't solely around
443 01:04:00.940 --> 01:04:08.160 Richard Hood: the mercenary approach of what to do if something goes wrong, but specifically around
444 01:04:09.710 --> 01:04:12.070 Richard Hood: when you have a difference of a view.
445 01:04:12.610 --> 01:04:15.459 Richard Hood: I was touched in that in a more generic terms.
446 01:04:16.650 --> 01:04:23.679 Richard Hood: Look for similarities, start the conversations, and see where you can actually find common ground.
447 01:04:24.550 --> 01:04:29.950 Richard Hood: Then you have an open conversation which in this day and age can be quite challenging.
448 01:04:30.180 --> 01:04:37.310 Richard Hood: and I try to have an open conversation where you discuss
449 01:04:37.730 --> 01:04:44.969 Richard Hood: what those differences are, and why those differences exist, but don't challenge the person.
450 01:04:45.620 --> 01:04:52.429 Richard Hood: challenge their thinking on that topic if that makes sense, but don't make them feel threatened.
451 01:04:53.190 --> 01:04:58.050 Richard Hood: There's some really great work about dealing with
452 01:04:59.140 --> 01:05:02.790 Richard Hood: people who may have gone down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theory
453 01:05:02.980 --> 01:05:11.489 Richard Hood: and things like that there's a lot of work that's been done around that. And it comes from having open conversations and
454 01:05:12.050 --> 01:05:19.629 Richard Hood: gently asking them, why do they think that? And then exploring their thinking.
455 01:05:20.290 --> 01:05:27.529 Richard Hood: And then you you don't pick holes. But you point out, why is that right?
456 01:05:28.380 --> 01:05:31.909 Richard Hood: And so you actually get them to challenge their own thinking.
457 01:05:32.740 --> 01:05:33.559 Jonathan Wise: Thank you.
458 01:05:34.710 --> 01:06:03.599 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: I also thought, Jonathan, that a couple of other things that you might use on the deniers is that leave it to nature. So let's not talk about floods caused by the climate change. Just the fact that there are floods. I was reading this morning about the chances of what they call a Cme a corona mass ejection, where there's basically a huge solar flare which could knock out all of our satellites. And so you lose comms.
459 01:06:03.650 --> 01:06:09.250 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: So that's nothing to do with climate. Deny it's just a fact of life that every now and again the sun goes berserk.
460 01:06:09.590 --> 01:06:28.440 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: or you know, we had that occasion a couple of years ago, when a volcano took off in Iceland and had to reroute all the airplanes around the Atlantic, and things like that didn't actually affect communications. But that sort of thing, I think, could have a major impact. And then, of course, there's always the next
461 01:06:29.090 --> 01:06:30.240 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: pandemic
462 01:06:30.450 --> 01:06:53.860 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: that I think one of the things I was reading about COVID-19 was that the experts were rather surprised that there was so long between the last big episode, which was the Spanish flu at the end of 1918. And now it's 2020 before we had the next one, and they were amazed that we went for 100 years, and there's no reason to suspect that the next one won't come in 5 years, time or next week, or whatever.
463 01:06:54.100 --> 01:07:01.600 Richard Hood: Well, just sort of expanding on that. A little bit more. COVID-19 was not what we were expecting.
464 01:07:01.990 --> 01:07:09.949 Richard Hood: And there are multiple others that we are expecting. We're still expecting the flu pandemic
465 01:07:10.760 --> 01:07:15.340 Richard Hood: with, and that will be far more challenging, potentially than Covid.
466 01:07:15.560 --> 01:07:20.140 Richard Hood: And there are other pandemics, and so on around the world.
467 01:07:20.260 --> 01:07:38.720 Richard Hood: the other not pandemics. All the diseases and other viruses that we're more concerned about, that are on the potential radar that we watch out for the other one. I just wanted to sort of mention. I'm glad you clarified what you meant by leave it to nature.
468 01:07:40.380 --> 01:07:50.959 Richard Hood: I was a little worried when you started. That was the opener for it where that conversation was going. But mentioning the
469 01:07:51.090 --> 01:07:59.280 Richard Hood: the sort of a solar flare effect we would be looking potentially in worst case scenarios like a Carrington event.
470 01:07:59.540 --> 01:08:07.090 Richard Hood: And if that's happened, we're losing Comms. We're losing power. You know, you're losing transportation.
471 01:08:07.300 --> 01:08:08.500 Richard Hood: You're losing
472 01:08:08.830 --> 01:08:21.299 Richard Hood: so much electrical capability and and electronic capability. You've got to think how you would function without any of that.
473 01:08:21.479 --> 01:08:28.730 Richard Hood: Now a lot of it that the expectation is refers to a black start event
474 01:08:28.950 --> 01:08:33.970 Richard Hood: and a black start event is when the power network goes, the whole grid goes down.
475 01:08:34.330 --> 01:08:49.119 Richard Hood: and that's what was referred to with Portugal when the Portuguese, when Portugal had their Spain and Portugal, had their power outage, and that's where their fear was. It would take 7 days to reboot the whole network
476 01:08:49.950 --> 01:08:51.700 Richard Hood: that happens quite often.
477 01:08:51.990 --> 01:08:57.350 Richard Hood: There's been quite a few of those that have gone on since 2,000. We haven't had one yet.
478 01:08:57.689 --> 01:09:01.090 Richard Hood: We've been close on a few occasions. But
479 01:09:01.649 --> 01:09:05.060 Richard Hood: the point is that that would be a 7 day outage.
480 01:09:05.250 --> 01:09:16.940 Richard Hood: Now, what they're looking at is rural areas would actually be up and running sooner than urban areas, because their network is a lot more simplistic.
481 01:09:17.279 --> 01:09:31.320 Richard Hood: So rural communities would get their supply back before urban areas which have got a lot more complex power transmission networks, and so they would be out for potentially a longer period than 7 days.
482 01:09:31.800 --> 01:09:52.529 Richard Hood: But if you're looking at a large scale counting event. You're looking at personal electronic devices and and items around the house would take a lot longer to replace and to operate, including cars potentially than having power back to properties.
483 01:09:55.020 --> 01:09:56.950 Richard Hood: Lots, lots of food for thought. There.
484 01:09:57.500 --> 01:10:03.279 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Yes, I did tell people this would be a reassuring session. Richard.
485 01:10:03.720 --> 01:10:09.759 Richard Hood: Okay? Well, moving on from that, then the point of you. You're all here.
486 01:10:10.220 --> 01:10:14.880 Richard Hood: and so that the reassurance is you're here. You're listening.
487 01:10:15.620 --> 01:10:22.640 Richard Hood: If you are listening and you do nothing else. You're more prepared today than you were yesterday.
488 01:10:23.340 --> 01:10:30.680 Richard Hood: and it's about the mindset of being prepared because the actual emergency plan.
489 01:10:31.150 --> 01:10:36.040 Richard Hood: The importance is about the the process you go through to create it
490 01:10:37.640 --> 01:10:44.420 Richard Hood: during an emergency. You're often going to find that the plan falls apart and you have to do something else anyway.
491 01:10:44.850 --> 01:10:47.490 Richard Hood: But the point is, you've thought about it.
492 01:10:48.510 --> 01:11:16.489 Richard Hood: Even the act of thinking about it makes you better prepared. And within your community. It's about recognizing all those skills, all those resources, and all those capabilities that you have in that community. And how can you access them? So I would say, yes, there are some significant challenges. Yes, as a nation we need to be, do far, far better than we are when it comes to resilience
493 01:11:17.000 --> 01:11:21.240 Richard Hood: other countries. Other communities are far better than we are at the moment.
494 01:11:21.830 --> 01:11:27.360 Richard Hood: but we have that the advantage of a population we have.
495 01:11:27.810 --> 01:11:33.110 Richard Hood: We just need to start connecting. So go out and know 21 people.
496 01:11:33.630 --> 01:11:42.619 Richard Hood: That's the start point of being a more resilient community and a more resilient society. And don't forget your businesses.
497 01:11:43.190 --> 01:11:50.139 Richard Hood: Businesses are part of your community. They have a job to play to make your community more resilient.
498 01:11:50.260 --> 01:11:57.829 Richard Hood: But you, as a community, have a job and a role to play to help and support them during an emergency as well.
499 01:12:00.020 --> 01:12:05.855 Richard Hood: So yeah, but hopefully, that's that's that's put on a more optimistic spin on it towards the end.
500 01:12:07.090 --> 01:12:24.180 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Well, thank you very much. I really did appreciate that coming a lot of very nice comments coming to your way from the chat. So if nobody else has got a hand up, or is desperate to say anything, let me say thank you so much for stepping into the breach. We're very grateful to you.
501 01:12:24.220 --> 01:12:38.610 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: and thank you everyone for attending, and we look forward to seeing you next week, and having cast attention upon Jack during your speech, Richard, I should point out that Jack will be next year's sorry next week's
502 01:12:38.880 --> 01:12:47.039 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: pantacession provider, and he'll be updating us on what's going on with his world, that he let us know about last year.
503 01:12:47.467 --> 01:12:50.409 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Thank you all very much for your time. Sorry, Jack, especially.
504 01:12:50.410 --> 01:12:52.432 Jack Cooper: So I'll just, I'll just mention
505 01:12:52.880 --> 01:13:04.960 Jack Cooper: Yeah, thank you so much for that, Richard. Yeah, I've got a project called Postcode Revolution, which is put in the chat which is doing is very resonant with, this is about kind of building community
506 01:13:05.010 --> 01:13:09.009 Jack Cooper: connecting with neighbors around that hyper local level and doing stuff. So
507 01:13:09.010 --> 01:13:35.770 Jack Cooper: yeah, that was fantastic to listen to. And as listening to that, I'm going to slightly adapt what I'm going to talk about next week, because a lot of it is stuff that I'm doing. So I'll be focusing more around nature and nature based kind of adaptation and transformation next week in the context of that. But yeah, so so useful and so interesting. Thank you for everything you're doing.
508 01:13:36.250 --> 01:13:41.040 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Great Jack. Thank you very much, and thank you all for coming and see you next time, whenever that happens to be.
509 01:13:41.040 --> 01:13:48.389 Andrew Maliphant Great Collaboration: Yeah. And I love the idea that Chris Noon's photo bombing cat reminds us that emergencies can happen at any time. Well done.
510 01:13:48.390 --> 01:13:50.180 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: And I'm surprised it didn't.
511 01:13:50.310 --> 01:13:52.609 Richard Hood: A question mark of the tail as it walks past.
512 01:13:53.910 --> 01:13:57.470 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Andrew, you're missing your your opportunity here.
513 01:13:57.730 --> 01:14:02.199 Andrew Maliphant Great Collaboration: I am. Let us go forward together, and we'll never surrender.
514 01:14:02.200 --> 01:14:27.179 Richard Hood: If you want to reach out to me it would be really appreciated. We might be able to sort of connect with some of the postcode one you were mentioned, we might be able to build that in to some of the work we do, and so we can get the message out a bit wider for you, but yeah, so I'll put my. Oh, if if Graham, if you can pass my email address around that, we appreciate.
515 01:14:27.420 --> 01:14:31.720 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Happy to do that. I'll I'll make sure it goes up on the on the wiki.
516 01:14:32.430 --> 01:14:33.439 Jack Cooper: Cool. Thank you.
517 01:14:33.440 --> 01:14:34.700 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: Sure take care.
518 01:14:37.410 --> 01:14:37.920 Richard Hood: Bye.
Visit the website:
00:26:16 Andrew Maliphant Great Collaboration:
00:38:21 Linda Aspey: "Lifehouse" is a good book about how communities in the US responded to Hurricane Sandy, and before that, how the Black Panther movement self organised to meet people's needs. It deals both with short term action, and with what author Adam Greenfield calls "The Long Emergency" which is what we probably face with climate/ eco events,.
think it may only be about food standards -
00:58:22 Andrew Maliphant Great Collaboration: Government has published a template at
00:59:25 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration, Isle of Wight: London Resilience Toolkit:
01:00:32 Andrew Maliphant Great Collaboration: To contact your local resilience forum for advice, plan templates etc.
01:07:08 Jonathan Wise: thank you 01:07:46 Alison Colban: Thank you, but sorry I have to go. Very informative. 01:08:10 Bonny Williams: I need to go too. Great session. Thank you. 01:10:04 Jonathan Wise: me too, thank you! 01:11:58 Andrew Maliphant Great Collaboration: Let us go forward together! 01:12:23 Linda Aspey: Thank you for an excellent session - really useful, and informative. 01:12:26 Chris Noon: wonderful - really useful - many thanks 01:13:00 Jack Cooper: