Wednesday 4th March, Friends Meeting House, Priory Road, Chichester
There was a presentation by Ian Guppy, WSCC Emergency and Resilience Adviser who was supported in the presentation by David Sale ( WSCC Climate Change Officer) and Michael Rowland (Emergency Planning Officer) CDC and ADC. This was well received by the audience, many of who took away copied of the booklet “Preparing for an emergency,” published by the Sussex Resilience Forum and Sussex Police.
A recording of the event which includes the presentation slides has been made, also an audio recording of the discussion that followed the presentation (The recording is a bit patchy, but not much can be done about this as not everyone who contributed used the microphone. It covers the essence of the discussions and in particular the contribution from Jonathan Brown at about 29 minutes into the recording.)
Please read the key points note below of the second part of the meeting when there was a free ranging discussion about how to build a Resilient Chichester.
There will also be a further note added in due course to pull out for ChiCan (Chichester Climate Action Group) and others of the key learning points from a climate change perspective.
Our reception recorded 51 people attending this meeting so we would like to follow up with more action in this area. We’ll keep you posted and please come and discuss further with the organisers of this meeting of whom, one or more are usually present at the Earth Café held at The Friends Meeting House, Priory Road, each Friday morning, 11.00 am to 1pm.
Transition Town Chichester would like to thank all those who gave a voluntary financial contribution to their funds. This enables us to continue to run a programme of events such as this one.
Discussion Session – Key Points
Q: How are the different emergency departments coordinated when they are notified of an emergency?
A: Departments are notified by SRF (Sussex Resilience Forum). There is a coordinated response which may be escalated to a serious incident depending on the situation.
Q: A lot of planning is being done. What are the positive outcomes? What will happen if there are shortages?
A: A positive outcome is the setting up of community hubs to function as reception and advice centres when there are emergencies. Fuel shortages are likely as a result of recent events. These will be dealt with at a national level.
Q: Chichester is in an agricultural area. Are the emergency services liaising with farmers to protect stock in an emergency, e.g. lack of water?
A: The Fire Service is aware of this and will respond in an emergency.
Q: The programme seems to rely on existing community groups helping when there are emergencies. What happens where these groups do not exist, e.g. where people are too busy at work to volunteer.
A: The fire service is working on community engagement and is developing a community engagement strategy. Youth engagement is particularly important and can be developed through a programme of youth activities.
Q: Does the Council have the power to require certain standards, e.g. water conservation.
A: These are imposed at national level. The law requires councils to prevent floods getting worse, not to reduce floods.
Discussion
Major floods will be more frequent in future and developers are building on flood plains. What can be done to improve the situation in new housing developments?
People buying new homes need infrastructure to support them and also need information about how to respond to emergencies such as flooding.
Developers could provide a welcome pack to people purchasing new homes. This could include information about responding to emergencies. Parish newsletters are also a good way of circulating information as they are widely distributed.
People in Bognor are already organising community groups which respond to climate change, e.g. growing their own food, rewilding. These have the support of the Council. In Worthing, CREW (Climate Resilience Centre Worthing) provides the infrastructure needed to connect people, gather resources and take action in face of the climate emergency. Centres like this are needed in every town.
It would be a good idea to engage with faith leaders as they have access to large numbers of people.
We are living through an environmental disaster and this is happening at local level. Local issues such as sewage pollution are not being fixed. We need to make our voices heard. If local issues are not fixed, bigger issues will not be fixed either.
Councillor Jonathan Brown: Councils can do a lot of lobbying and talking to organisations, but planning is not well coordinated. If you are talking to climate change deniers, engage them by talking about issues which affect them, e.g. flooding rather than talk to them about issues like global warming.
There are lots of things that individuals can do such as setting up climate action networks. Climate awareness can also be developed in other groups, such as scouts.
Chichester Harbour adaptation
Chichester Harbour is working on adaptation strategies to address the challenges posed by climate change. The proposals focus on nature-based solutions, setting new houses back from the coast and preparing marine businesses for greater resilience. Footpaths will be set back form the coast to create space for nature. These strategies aim to mitigate the impact of sea level rise and deteriorating water quality.