On the 31st August Wiltshire and Swindon Prepared ran its first ever Resilience Event aimed at all Town and Parish councils in Wiltshire and Swindon. The aim was to increase the resilience of all areas across the county by holding exercises, demonstrations and talks from a variety of partners.

Over 200 people attended the event with excellent attendance from Town and Parish councils supplemented by a vast amount of multi-agency partners showcasing their resources and response capabilities.

The event started with an exercise based around a severe weather event covering all stages from the initiation through to recovery. This gave all communities the chance to test any plans they have and also understand how the multi-agency partners would respond and liaise with them. This was followed by the main event of the day ,being the stands and displays from partner organisations. 

Over 20 different stands and displays were set up across the venue, including, flood wardens, drainage, highways, SGN (gas), Climate Change, Communities Prepared, RE:ACT, Serve On, St Johns Ambulance, WILSAR (Search and rescue), RAYNET (Radio communications), Dorset and Wiltshire Fire, SSEN, Wales and West Utilities, Wessex 4x4, Public Health, EE, SG Mind and many more. This gave everyone a chance to see different responders capabilities and also understand more how they work in a community setting. Following this was a sand bag wall building demonstration from Milestone (a contractor working with Wiltshire Council Highways), showing communities the correct way to build sand bag walls and answering any questions the community members had.

Lastly the day concluded with presentations on Community Risk and Community Emergency Plans from the two councils and presentations from SSEN (Power Outages) and EE (telecommunications).

The day was seen as an a great success and is only the starting point of Wiltshire's Communities becoming better prepared and more resilient.

Should you have any questions on the event and want to know more about Community Resilience in Wiltshire and Swindon please contact: wiltshireandswindonprepared@wiltshire.gov.uk