Agenda item

(1)       Mr Harwood tabled an update sheet incorporating the recent snow and cold weather events and response. 

(2)       Mr Harwood said that KCC, its Boroughs Districts, the emergency services and other partners had risen to the challenge and were widely acknowledged to have responded very effectively. 

(3)       Mr Harwood drew particular attention to the Severe Weather Advisory Group which had operated between 23 and 27 February.  He said that it had been initiated by KCC following early warnings by the Met Office.  This had enabled staff resources and infrastructure to be put in place, particularly the shifts, gritting and 4x4 resources that were to be essential for the coming response. 

(4)       Mr Harwood then said that Kent had now moved to the recovery phase for most of the County, although there were still a number of areas that were without water and still urgently required operational response activity. 

(5)       Messages had been sent out and constantly updated during the severe weather week using the Kent Snow#, which had been looked at by at least 1.8m different people.   Public messaging had been very pro-active and had evolved with and sometimes led the news agenda.  For example, early on there had been a strong focus on asking people to look out for their neighbours and vulnerable people during the heavy snowfall.  The same message had been heavily promoted on both local and national TV.   The messaging focus had then switched to driver behaviour once the weather broke and motorists started getting back in their cars whilst roads were still potentially icy and hazardous. 

(6)       Mr Harwood said that a lot of work was now being undertaken with the water companies and other partners in response to the leakage issue.  Vulnerable people, isolated communities and livestock were particular concerns in relation to water supply disruption.

(7)       Mrs Brown said that Yalding PC had received the messages after the event rather than before or during. Yalding PC had, nevertheless, given out messages of a similar nature to its residents.  She added that it was important to learn from the experience and to make the necessary adjustments to ensure that messaging from all the agencies, including Parishes, went out early in a co-ordinated fashion.  The Parish Councils had a vital role to play in achieving this goal. 

(8)       Mr Harwood said that a lot of information had been transmitted through the KALC during the recent severe weather event.   The multi-agency Emergency Management Team had also worked closely with those communities that had their own Resilience Plans.  He offered to take back Mrs Brown’s concerns to Kent Resilience Forum colleagues.

(9)       Mr Harwood then said that that there would be a number of opportunities for lessons to be learned through a series of debriefs that would be held by the various agencies, as well as an overall Kent Resilience Forum multi-agency debrief.  

(10)     Mr Harwood continued by saying that these reviews would look closely at some of the staff and contractor issues.   The demands made upon gritter drivers and social care providers had been coped with, but it had been very fortunate that the weather broke when it did, as staff resource sustainability issues could have arisen otherwise. 

(11)     A key element of the work of the County Emergency Centre in Invicta House had been the very successful facilitation of 4x4s support for essential workers and vulnerable people. Work had also been done in matching the response skills of people who were unable to get to their normal place of work to alternative locations which they were able to access. 

(12)     Mr Harwood replied to a question from Mrs Doyle by saying that Southeastern and Network Rail had both been involved. Southeastern had been very successful during the early part of the week but had begun to find the conditions too great a challenge when ice became an issue towards the end of the cold snap. On Friday, 2 March there had been a total of 11 trains stranded in different parts of Kent.   The Emergency Centre and Southeastern had worked very closely together to provide alternative forms of public transport for those affected.  The transportation and welfare responses had gone on through Friday night and into Saturday. 

(13)     Mr Harwood then said that the freezing rain that had occurred in the Friday had been exceptional, badly affecting services that relied upon exposed electricity infrastructure.   He strongly complimented Dover DC which had run numerous 4x4s to collect people from affected railway stations. The County Emergency Centre had been the hub whilst KCC operational teams, Districts, Boroughs, emergency services and voluntary sector had carried out a very high volume of operational activity.

(14)     Mr Chittenden said that members of the public would ask a number of questions about the events, and it was important for the County Council to examine its overall winter preparedness rather than limiting this consideration to the recent emergency response (which had been excellent).   A longer spell could have stretched the ability to respond effectively

(15)     RESOLVED that the report be noted for assurance with particular reference to the response activity to the emergencies caused by the very recent heavy snowfall and thaw and their aftermath.