Issue - meetings

Report by the Director of Communities, Economy and Transport.

26.1     The Team Manager, Emergency Planning introduced the report and outlined the background to the incident which occurred at the beginning of March 2018. There was a disruption of water supplies over 3-4 days during which time the Emergency Planning Team and Sussex Resilience Forum (SRF) were involved in the response to the incident. Learning from this incident has been captured by the multi-agency Operation Kirkwall de-brief held by SRF three months after incident. Since that time the Emergency Planning Team has been working with the Water Companies and the Resilience Forum on the lessons learnt to update and amend emergency plans.

South East Water

26.2     Douglas Whitfield, South East Water, gave a presentation to the Committee which outlined the water supply areas covered by South East Water; the background to the freeze thaw incident; the company’ response to it; and the follow up work that was been undertaken. The points raised in the presentation are summarised below.

26.3     South East Water supplies around 517 million litres of water per day to properties across Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The majority of the water comes from ground water sources (80%) with the remainder coming from surface water sources.

Freeze thaw incident

26.4     The Eastern Region which covers Sussex and Kent was affected by the freeze thaw incident during which temperatures went from -11^oc to +11^oc. The rapid change in temperature caused ground movement which led to a large number of burst pipes, particularly on customers’ premises. 70-80% of the burst pipes were on customers’ premises and around one third (20-30%) were on the water supply network. This led to a 20% increase in demand for water of around 105 million litres on the first day of the incident, which drained the water supply network. This was the worst loss of water supply incident that South East Water has experienced in the last 20 years, and it affected 8,000 properties in East Sussex.

26.5     South East Water responded to the incident through an emergency plan and in conjunction with the Resilience Forums. The emergency plan included setting up an incident team in advance of the weather event due to the forecast impact on the water network of an increased number of leaks and burst pipes. However, South East Water did not anticipate an incident of this magnitude, which involved a large number of leaks on customer’s premises.

26.6     Teams of engineers repaired 633 leaks over the five day period and 28 burst mains a day; 675 vulnerable customers were contacted and provided with emergency water supplies; and emergency supplies were provided to affected farmers and businesses. South East Water also set up a communications sub group to provide communications through councils and other partners, but accepted that it needs to make more use of these links in future.

Emergency Water Supplies

26.7     Customer feedback showed the main concern was about the availability of emergency bottled water and the location of the distribution centres. It was clear  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26

18.1     The Team Manager, Emergency Planning introduced report. East Sussex County Council (ESCC) is part of the East Sussex Resilience and Emergencies Partnership (ESREP) established in 2013 to provide Emergency Planning services for the partners under a Memorandum of Understanding. The East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service (ESFRS) joined the Partnership in 2015.

18.2     The report gives details of the work undertaken by Emergency Planning Team including responses to local and national incidents and emergency planning exercises which test plans and rehearse responses for major incidents (e.g. exercise Galileo for a mass casualties plan; exercise Snail for a major fire in the Cuilfail Tunnel). There will be a large scale multi-agency Sussex Resilience Forum exercise in February/March 2019 to test the recovery from an adverse weather event.

18.3     The Committee asked why Rother District Council (RDC) is not part of the Partnership as all the other East Sussex councils are members of ESREP. The Assistant Director, Communities responded that when the Memorandum of Understanding was drawn up, RDC decided that they did not want to join as they have their own Emergency Planning officer. However, if there is an incident and RDC request assistance, ESREP members would provide mutual aid (and vice versa). The Team Manager, Emergency Planning added that she would welcome it if RDC decided to join ESREP.

18.4     The Committee enquired about what ESCC is doing to encourage RDC to join ESREP, and what their reasons were for not joining. The Director of Communities, Economy and Transport explained that the Emergency Planning Team have an ongoing dialogue with RDC about joining ESREP, but the RDC staffing structure may be one of the reasons why they do not want to join at this point in time. It is a matter of demonstrating the compelling reasons why RDC should join the Partnership.

18.5     The Committee commented that ESCC local Members are not always notified when an incident has occurred in their Division. It is important that all local Members (ESCC as well as Parish, Town, Borough and District councils) are made aware of incidents and kept updated. It is also import for ESCC Councillors to know what their role is in the response to an incident and where that role ends. For example, it would be helpful to have a point of contract in the Emergency Planning Team to feed information into about reports of an incident.

18.6     The Lead Member for Communities and Safety outlined that the Team is developing a guide, which will include all 3 tiers of local government. So it will be possible to offer guidance in due course and the Team will undertake work to brief ESCC Councillors on their role. The Team Manager, Emergency Planning added that generic plans on what to do will be developed for Councillors.

18.7     Mark Andrews, ESFRS outlined the strong partnership working and support from the Local Resilience Forum (LRF), and assured the Committee that it has robust plans in place to deal with major incidents. He commented  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18

Report by the Director of Communities, Economy and Transport.

28.1     The Head of Communities introduced Victoria Eaton to the Committee who is the Team Manager for Emergency Planning. She introduced the report and outlined that the structure of the team is an excellent example of partnership working with other councils and organisations. This, coupled with the recruitment of the final member of the professional team, enhances the Team’s ability to provide best value and shared expertise. The Team is comprised of 5.2 full time equivalent posts (including a job share) with additional staff support provided from Public Health and the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service (ESFRS).

28.2     The Committee asked how the size of the ESCC team compared with other local authorities, and about the balance between reactive and planned work of the Team. The Team Manager, Emergency Planning responded that West Sussex County Council’s emergency planning team has 11 staff, but does not provide a service to District and Borough councils. Surrey County Council’s emergency planning team has 14 staff.

28.3     The Team Manager, Emergency Planning explained that a large part of the Team’s activity is working proactively with a range of partners in order to be prepared as much as possible for a range of incidents and emergencies. The Team also provide a leadership role in dealing with incidents and emergencies when they occur.  The Lead Member for Communities added that their role also includes working with local businesses and communities on the importance of emergency planning.

28.4     The Committee enquired whether further funding or income was available from partners such as the ESFRS and Sussex Police. The Team Manager, Emergency Planning explained that the ESFRS makes a contribution in staff time by providing a member of staff who works with the Team. Sussex Police have their own team and therefore do not buy into the service. The Director of CET commented that the Police role is different in the event of an emergency incident as a first responder. The local authority’s role is to provide recovery and resilience in getting communities back up and working after an incident.

28.5     The Committee asked if the Team give assistance to Parish councils in emergency planning, and whether they make a contribution to the Teams’ budget. The Team Manager, Emergency Planning responded that the Team does provide assistance to Parish councils and has held a conference on emergency planning for Parish councils. There is a statutory obligation in the Civil Contingencies Act for ESCC, as a category 1 responder, which Parish councils do not have. Therefore ESCC does not charge for services to Parishes.

28.6     The work with Parishes provides self-help and guidance for Parishes in their work. This is to help build community resilience and raise awareness of that for which Parish councils are responsible. The Lead Member for Communities offered to circulate the presentation slides from the conference and will check to see if ESCC councillors were invited.

28.7     The Committee noted the net cost of the Service and asked if there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28