Former Butleigh and Butleigh Wootton Community Emergency Team

It was good to read Pete Edmondson’s comments about the former Butleigh and Butleigh Wootton Community Emergency Team in his message posted on 22 March and I am pleased to give a brief background to the sterling work of its members.

The Butleigh & Butleigh Wootton Emergency Team were formed  in 2011 following a government initiative which was supported by the Somerset County Council, and hence we worked closely with the Emergency Planning Department (EPD), which is now known as Somerset Preparedness.

Back in 2011 some members of the Parish Council did not support the group and said that no emergencies were going to happen in Butleigh and / or Butleigh Wootton and could not see why we needed such a team.

The concept of the team was to supplement the emergency services in the event of them being overwhelmed at an incident, particularly involving a large number of casualties  and to pass on information contained within the Emergency Plan as requested.

Two members of the team had vast experience in dealing with civil emergencies following lengthy careers within two of our emergency services.

Since its formation the team provided :-

·  A Community Emergency Plan which was very comprehensive and approved  by the EPD ; and supported by all our resident Doctors in the village;

·   Team members were provided with fully protective equipment (PPE) and marked “Community Emergency Team”;

·  Robust Hand Torches;

·  Walky Talkie Radios

We attended the serious fire at the thatched cottage in Sub Road and turned out during snowy periods to check on elderly and vulnerable residents in our community

We also responded to localised flooding in the High Street outside Bridge Farm and Back Town.

A great many parishioners gave us their support and appreciated our efforts.

The Parish Council  received copies of the Emergency Plan and were  kept informed of our status by our annual reports at the Annual Parish Meetings.

Sadly in 2018 the then Parish Council with the exception of one councillor, agreed not to support our application for insurance and again stated that they could see no need to have such a group and stated that nothing was going to happen in our communities.

Despite the sterling efforts of a single councillor  and the team to seek an alliance with the Council as was the case with other communities within Somerset, with much reluctance, we disbanded in late 2018