From time to time, communities find themselves in an unenviable position of needing to respond to an emergency situation, as we have seen all too recently with the serious field fires in Ashill, Norfolk leaving families homeless and having lost all their possessions.

Stanton has had its fair share of emergency situations in the distant past with a Wellington Bomber crash in 1942 and more recently flash flooding from the Grundle in 2018.

The Parish Council, working with the District Emergency Planning Officer, are in the process of preparing a Stanton Community Emergency Plan to help mitigate the impact of any serious incident should it arise, enabling the community to quickly return to normality.

In the first instance, the Parish Council will identify Councillors and Community volunteers to co-ordinate the activities of the community during an emergency by assessing the situation, contacting the most appropriate local resources to support the community and maintaining links with the emergency services, District and County Council and any other responding organisations.

Could you help in an emergency? Could you be ‘on call’ to provide refreshments? Can you organise people in a rest centre? Do you have access to a tractor/excavator/chain saw/4 x 4/? Would you be prepared to turn out and unblock the Grundle grids during a down pour?

Many hands make light work!

If you would like to help or have any ideas about what skills or services would be needed – and especially if you have any previous experience of preparing emergency plans or in fact been in the middle of a serious situation and know what it feels like, then please email the Clerk at Stantonparishcouncil@gmail.com or call 01359 408759