Described as “the loveliest spot on Morecambe Bay,” Silverdale is situated between Lancaster and Kendal, with woodland walks leading to panoramic views across the estuary to the Lakeland Fells.
This picture postcard village has a lively community of all ages and hosts an award-winning theatre group, a thriving agricultural industry and busy caravan sites catering for tourists.
You can’t imagine anything bad ever happening here, but sadly, no community is immune to the strike of disaster, and in Silverdale they believe in being well prepared if one does.
That’s why members of the local parish council have set up the Silverdale Emergency Resilience Group (SERG) to ensure the community remains resilient if emergency services are not able to respond immediately.
SERG is made up of volunteers, and as part of their remit as a group, they are reviewing the Silverdale Emergency Plan.
What is the Silverdale Emergency Plan?
The plan provides local residents with guidance around what to do in the event of an emergency such as a blackout, fire, or extreme weather. This includes meeting points, contact details for the plan’s co-ordinators, emergency services and voluntary organisations, and guidelines for how residents can manage the incident if emergency services cannot reach the village.
Jenny Webster is Vice-chair of the parish council, one of the SERG Emergency Plan Co-ordinators, and became a British Citizen 20 years ago after moving to the UK from the US. As such, she brings a very useful perspective, having been accustomed to extreme weather events in America.
Whilst she pointed out that the emergency group is in no way a replacement for the emergency services, she was keen to highlight the vital role residents play in being able to build resilience and protect the community’s people and properties in the face of disaster.
Residents are experts in an emergency
She said: “There is an assumption that as the experts, emergency services will tell residents what to do. But the point is that if the emergency services can’t get to us, they can’t get to us, and in those circumstances residents have their own expertise. They know where everything in the village is, how the plan can be activated, where the most vulnerable people are, what equipment we have that can be of use - and how to manage if we were cut off and had to manage on our own for a few days.”
Jenny took the lead on recruiting volunteers to form SERG, which so far includes a mix of local councillors and residents, and the group are keen for more residents to take on various roles and responsibilities, as discussed at their most recent meeting in April, held at Silverdale Village Institute.
In the meantime, parish council Chair, Liz Unsworth, also an Emergency Plan Coordinator and a former government comms specialist, is helping to drive things forward and ensuring villagers are aware of the plan and its purpose.
Communication is key
Liz explained: “It’s all about communication and the parish council has several ways of trying to keep residents informed about what is happening and what we are doing. We do this through the parish council website, the parish magazine, posters, the Silverdale Village Facebook pages, and through our Neighbourhood Watch group, and if necessary, we try to deliver printed copies of information out to every household, especially those in our more remote areas.”
Silverdale’s plan was first submitted in 2021 in response to a request from Lancaster City Council, who asked communities to produce plans which would enable them to manage alone if the emergency services could not reach them within a few days.
Creating an emergency hub
Liz said: “Lancaster City Council asked communities to produce an Emergency Plan following Storm Desmond, when there was extensive flooding throughout the city, causing a huge blackout, and people didn’t know what to do.
“As a result of that first Silverdale Emergency Plan, we acquired some basic emergency equipment, including a generator linked into Gaskell Hall’s electrical system, which would enable any residents who couldn’t stay in their homes during an emergency, to be able to use the Gaskell Hall as an emergency hub."
SERG’s diesel generator was obtained, along with emergency kit, thanks to the hard work of parish councillor John Bennett.
The Silverdale Emergency Plan is in continuous development, with co-ordinators looking for missing gaps and filling them.
“One of the main holes in our plan was how to know when to activate it,” said Liz, “and Chris Shuttleworth from the Lancashire Resilience Forum (LRF) helped us resolve this by giving us a radio handset that connects us to the Lancashire Resilience Forum’s Emergency Radio Area Link (ERAL) Network.”
Staying connected with walkie talkies
The ERAL service allows Lancashire Category 1 and 2 responders and authorised partners to communicate with each other during an emergency on a common VHF radio network.
Liz said: “A good proportion of knowing where to start is getting communication lines ready to find out if what we are experiencing is a national emergency and whether we need to exist on our own for a while; and if so, how we organise people to check on neighbours and that people have what they need until help arrives.”
“So now, with access to the ERAL Network, even if there is a complete power outage, Silverdale is still connected to emergency services. If something is happening, we can get on to that network to see if it’s a local or national event and know whether we need to act, and where to start if we do.”
This is where a whole of society approach is crucial, so that the co-ordinators aren’t left to do it all themselves, Liz said: “This means asking your community to do some basic preparations, to know what records and items to keep in their grab bags if they have to leave their home, and reassuring them that we can communicate with the emergency services even if normal lines of communication are down.
More volunteers needed
“Currently, we are trying to galvanise a group of volunteers to be street wardens. Their role would be to make a note of people in their vicinity who may need help, to check on them in an emergency, and act as ‘runners’ to deliver information as it comes in.”
Liz emphasised: “Unless the community gets involved it won’t work. It took Wennington Parish Council a good 9 -12 months to get its small village community to understand what resilience was all about and it’s been very successful; Wennington is being hailed as a good example of ‘how it’s done’ and we are using its experience in our own preparations and plans.
“If you’re on the emergency group, there may be an odd practice drill and meeting to attend every now and again, and you’d need to have a copy of the plan and know your neighbourhood.”
Another item on the SERG agenda is to identify local farmers who can offer help with equipment and vehicles, such as chainsaws and tractors. They will join James Burrow from Gibraltar Farm who has offered his support to SERG.
L to R: Parish Councillor Tony Houghton, James Burrow, and Parish Councillor and Vice-Chair Jenny Webster (holding the Emergency Radio Area Link (ERAL) handset recently acquired from the Lancashire Resilience Forum).
Setting up an emergency plan
For communities out there who would like to set up their own Emergency Plan, the first port of call should be their local council.
At Lancaster City Council, Resilience & Community Safety Officer, Kirstie Banks-Lyon is the keeper of such plans. She encourages communities to use the council’s own template (available from resilience@lancaster.gov.uk) and ensure she is sent their final plan and any future updated versions.
Kirstie stores and then circulates these plans within the council and to all appropriate responder agencies, including Lancashire Constabulary, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, Northwest Ambulance Service, Lancashire County Council Emergency Planning and the Environment Agency.
Kirstie commented: “For me, the key to a successful community plan is ownership by the local community. I have a demanding role within Lancaster City Council, and it is not always possible for me to attend parish council meetings but I am always contactable by email and can offer advice.
“Bar one plan, all the community plans in the District are rural communities with parish councils - these communities know their areas better than I do and for me they need to be empowered to take the lead.”
Liz agrees: “As a teenager in the mid-70s, we had regular power cuts. The power went off at 7pm and came back on at 7am. Sometimes it was off all day, in winter as well, and we were used to it. In those days we had coal fires, battery record players and radios.
“Today, generally, people don’t prepare - but the older generation is more aware: with candles, bottles of water, wind up radios, copious bags of dried stuff, a wood burner, a camping gas stove or similar appliance… so that whatever happens, they will be able to keep warm and cook on something.
“At LRF’s recent Preparedness Day some of the younger people said they would know how to identify vulnerable people in the event of a power cut by going to their database. But it wouldn’t be working - and not many organisations keep paper copies.
“That’s why communities need to be active agents in preparing for disasters. They know their own village and where they can get resources, and who may need extra help, should such an event occur. We pray such an event will not occur, but if it does, we have a plan.”
