Civil Contingencies Act 2004
Under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 as a local authority we
have a statutory duty to have in place robust and resilient
contingency plans to ensure the borough’s resources and staff are
equipped to deal with a crisis situation effectively, while
continuing to provide the usual day-to-day services of the Council.
The Act classes local authorities in the same category as the
police services, fire brigade, health authorities, environment
agency, ambulance services, coastguards and port authorities.
In an emergency situation the Council will:
- support the emergency services
- support people affected by the incident
- provide mutual aid to other responders
- maintain normal council services
- plan for medium and long term consequences and recovery from
the incident
The type of assistance that can be offered is the provision
of:
- transportation
- rest centres
- examination of building structures
- highway closures and diversion routes
- site clearance
- specialist equipment
- welfare/support
- environmental health services
Once the immediate life-threatening period has passed, the
Council will play a major role in restoring normality to the area
as quickly as possible.