One of our LRF emergency planners will shortly be leaving us for pastures new.

Tasha Whitear, will leave her role as Principal Civil Protection Officer at Swindon Borough Council at the end of March to take up a new post in the United States. 

Tasha will be joining the consultancy firm WSP within their emergency management team. She will be located between Los Angeles and San Diego in California on the west coast. 

Tasha joined Swindon Borough Council in July 2019 as a Civil Protection Officer and has worked as part of a small team that deals with emergency planning within the Council. She was involved in the multi-agency response to national events such as the Covid-19 pandemic and local arrangements for the death of Her Majesty the Queen in 2022. She has been at the heart of local responses to incidents such as flooding and fires especially when evacuation of people has been required.

She has been proactive in organising training and exercising for local responders. She collaborated with Hampshire and the Isle of Wight LRF to deliver a cross-border evacuation exercise in 2023 and a arranged a multi-agency Recovery Workshop at County Hall in November 2024. To complement these events, she has organised yearly live play rest centre exercises in Swindon; all these events have served to help with single agency and multi-agency preparedness.

Within Wiltshire and Swindon LRF, she has held the important Risk portfolio for several years. This is a vital area of work because identifying and prioritising risk drives the business of the LRF and helps direct limited resources. She has led on localising the National Security Risk Assessment into the Community Risk Register and sits on a national group to ensure that our local voice is heard, and that national best practice is disseminated locally. 

Tasha graduated from Swansea University with a degree in Geography and American Studies. After undertaking some work experience at Wiltshire Council, she went travelling for six months before securing her position at Swindon Borough Council.

Emergency management is structured differently in the USA. In the UK, our structure is based on the ‘local’ and the principle of subsidiarity whereas in the States it is very much directed nationally by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which employs more than 20,000 people nationwide. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C., with ten regional offices located across the country. It leverages a tremendous capacity to coordinate within the federal government to make sure America is equipped to prepare for and respond to disasters.

Tasha will be working for a company that is contracted by FEMA at times of emergency and works across other US States as well as California. Her role will be divided between projects and response and she  takes up her new post at the end of April. 

Tasha will be leaving her home in the Bradford-on-Avon area for a very different life. She enjoys travelling and will be moving to the States with her husband who has secured an engineering job. She looks forward to experiencing the west coast lifestyle, sampling the food and delighting in the coastline, national parks and all that California and wider America has to offer. From a professional perspective, she recognises that California experiences devastating natural disasters such as wildfires, flooding and earthquakes. 

Tasha said “I have loved working for Swindon Borough Council and with Wiltshire & Swindon LRF. I have grown so much in confidence and knowledge in being exposed to a number of training and exercising opportunities as well as live incidents. I have met and worked with so many amazing people and am sad to say goodbye. But I will be taking the tools and experience I have learnt into my new role and am very grateful for my time working at SBC and in the multi-agency environment.”

Paul Williams, Joint LRF Manager said “It has been a real pleasure to see Tasha’s personal and professional development over the last six years. She is a popular member of the LRF who recognises the importance of multi-agency working to keep the people of Wiltshire and Swindon safe. She has developed a whole range of transferrable emergency management skills over that time, and these will stand her in good stead for the challenges of working in emergency management in America. This is a great opportunity for her which I’m sure she’ll fully grasp. We will miss her locally, but we wish her the very best in her new and exciting venture.”