Agenda item

1.      Mrs Rebecca Spore (Director of Infrastructure) introduced the report which provided an overview of incident responses and resilience activity over the previous six months. She explained that a Major Incident relating to water supply disruption across the county was currently ongoing and the Council was leading the multi-agency response to this incident including coordinating support for vulnerable settings and communities. She emphasised the complexity and rapidly changing nature of the situation. The update also outlined the Member emergency planning briefing sessions delivered by the Resilience and Emergency Planning Service for which further training dates had been scheduled and all Members were encouraged to attend.

2.      Mr Andy Jeffery (Head of Resilience & Emergency Planning) explained that a multi-agency debrief had now been completed for the Portland Factory Club Fire in Northfleet, which identified both areas for improvement—such as welfare centre activation, communication and environmental considerations—and examples of effective practice, including multi agency liaison and strong communication across the command structure. Recommendations were being reviewed and would be allocated to owners by the KMRF Lessons Identified, Lessons Learned group in early February. An internal KCC debrief had also been completed following the Tunbridge Wells water outage in December 2025, identifying the need to clarify out of hours processes and improve alerting arrangements, alongside examples of strong strategic leadership and staff engagement. A multi-agency debrief for that incident would follow once current resource pressures eased. Mr Jeffery paid tribute to staff across the organisation, noting the significant commitment shown by Officers both in and out of hours.

3.      Further to questions and comments from Members the discussion included the following:

(a)     The importance of emergency-planning training for all Members was emphasised.

(b)     Officers confirmed that the Scrutiny Committee would be considering the remit of a Short Focused Inquiry into the water outages at its next meeting and that comments made by Members would be passed to the Committee for consideration. It was noted that any inquiry should not be limited solely to the earlier Tunbridge Wells outage, but should also encompass recent and ongoing incidents.

(c)     Members queried the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum (KMRF) protocol relating to water supply disruption and the process for declaring a major incident. Officers confirmed that a multi-agency water supply disruption plan was in place, developed in consultation with all water undertakers operating in Kent.

(d)     Members raised questions relating to repeated fires at a commercial premises, cybersecurity preparedness, international liaison in emergency scenarios involving cross Channel operations, and the management of maritime risks such as vessel collisions and hazardous cargo. Officers confirmed that cause of fire investigations were a matter for Kent Fire and Rescue Service, that cybersecurity recommendations from Exercise Troy would be reported back to a future meeting, and that international liaison sat primarily with central government, although KCC would explore whether related workstreams could sit within the KMRF.

4.      The Chief Executive recognised the exceptional work undertaken by Officers across services in responding to daily and major incidents. She paid particular tribute to the Marketing and Resident Experience Service, the Resilience and Emergency Planning Service, the Director of Public Health, and the Director of Infrastructure.

5.      RESOLVED to note the report.