Emergency planning in local authorities

Abstract

The image that emergency planning generates is that of ‘Dad's Army’—elderly ex-military gentlemen handing out blankets and tins of food. With the development of a number of degree and postgraduate courses, such as International Disaster Engineering and Management at Coventry University, a significant change in the emergency planning profession has occurred. Add to this recent incidents such as the severe flooding in the UK and central Europe, the foot-and-mouth crisis, the Yarls Wood Immigration Centre fire, the fuel crisis and the terrorist attacks on the United States and the picture of the dynamic and ever-changing environment in which emergency planning officers now work becomes clear. Emergency planning has developed into a diverse,modern profession that in light of these incidents has become the responsibility of us all. This short paper looks at and explains the legislation that relates to emergency plan-ning, the role of emergency planning departments in local government, the emergency planning process and what the role of local government should be in response to an incident.