Council emergency teams deployed to illegal raves and falling cliffs

The team also dealt with pollution incidents, lightning strikes, security alerts, falling trees and three gas leaks, one requiring residents to be evacuated.

Included among the bigger incidents were the March 2023 oil spill in Poole Harbour which continued until February 2024 and Storm Ciaran in November 2023.

For each of the 39 incidents the council holds a de-brief trying to extract ways in which the council, and its partners, could have performed better. It also carried out a number of exercises throughout the year to test its procedures.

While weather-related and natural incidents, such as cliff falls, remain among the most likely reasons to call an emergency team to action one of the biggest threats to the council remains a cyber attack or power outage which puts council and other public services under threat.

While several department have held their own training exercises for such an eventuality a council-wide exercise is being planned for later in the year with guidance and support for  business and voluntary organisations available on the ‘Dorset Prepared’ website.

A Council annual report on emergency planning says that it needs to help and encourage how communities respond to incidents – working with businesses, sport and social clubs, cultural groups, education and other institutions including town and parish councils.

The county, including the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area, now has a pan-Dorset Community Resilience Liaison Officer (CRLO) on a fixed term contract, hosted by Dorset Council, but covering both unitary council areas.

The annual report says the officer often visits community events and meetings to spread the message about being prepared for incidents and has helped develop several Community Emergency Response Plans across Dorset.

Further information about emergency planning and community resilience can be found on the Dorset website https://dorsetprepared.org.uk/