West Hill Emergency Plan
Under normal circumstances, of course, major emergencies are dealt with by the emergency services, County and District Councils, utilities and voluntary agencies in a combined response, but there can be times when the village may need to help ourselves – particularly if there is an issue which is affecting a large area.
Preparing for an emergency can help to reduce the impact it has
West Hill Parish Council adopted a village Community Emergency Plan at it's April 2026 meeting.
The Parish Council, assisted by community members, developed the plan to provide resilience for the community in the pre-event phase and early stages of an emergency affecting the village. The plan has been reviewed and approved by the Devon Community Resilience Forum.
Many village residents and groups have contributed to the development of the plan. A Community Response Team (CRT) of volunteers has been formed to assist in the activation of this plan and to assist the Emergency Services wherever possible, prior to, during and after an emergency event. Also, the West Hill RBL branch has kindly agreed that, in the event of an emergency, their clubhouse will become a village hub offering a communications centre for the Response Team and offering support for the community.
The aim of the Emergency Plan is to increase resilience within the local community through developing a robust, co-ordinated plan that complements the plans of responding agencies.
Most emergencies will be managed by the professional “blue lamp” Emergency Services who are trained and equipped for such eventualities. There may however be some occasions when the emergency is such that the Emergency Services are very thinly stretched or are physically unable to respond immediately. In such circumstances the community must rely on “self help” until the Emergency Services can respond fully and this Emergency Plan is intended to provide such self help.
A copy of the Emergency Plan is available in the link below. The Parish Council will continue to test, develop and re-publish the plan as it evolves.
Documents available:
West Hill Community Emergency Plan (version 1 April 2026)
West Hill Parish Council Emergency Plan - Lets Be Ready booklet (Nov 2024)