Oxford,
16
February
2016
|
11:56
Europe/London

Grant boosts villages’ defences against bad weather.

The SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy) Resilient Communities Fund offers up to £20,000 to help communities to:

  • Protect the welfare of vulnerable people during a major power cut or emergency due to severe weather
  • Enhance community facilities and services that may be needed  during a major power cut or emergency due to severe weather
  •  Improve communication during an emergency situation, to keep communities informed or to aid contact between local groups and response services

 

Some Oxfordshire communities have already benefited from the fund. Stratton Audley Parish Council received a grant of almost £10,000.

Following advice from Oxfordshire County Council’s Emergency Planning Department  the parish council applied for a grant from the Resilient Communities Fund.

After putting in their bid last year, the parish council was delighted to be told it had been awarded a grant of £9508.

John Honsinger, Chairman of Stratton Audley Parish Council said: “As a small community with limited resources this will make a significant difference and enable us to support residents in practical ways when needs arise.

The money is being used for a range of items, the major ones being a defibrillator (with training for volunteers), a shed for housing emergency supplies such as blanket, hot water bottles, shovels, a generator plus emergencies kits of lighting and other items for householders in the event of power cuts or flooding which is always a threat from the river that runs through the village.

We were happily surprised and impressed by the speed of the decision from SSE and delighted that 95% of what we asked for was granted” 

Carol MacKay, Principal Emergency Planning Officer, Oxfordshire County Council Emergency Planning unit said:” We promoted this fund to parishes and I did visits to several of the successful parishes who applied for funds.

“We promote each parish having a community resilience plan which depending on the parish may be vulnerable to flooding or when it snows . Funds can be used to buy a shed to store sandbags, to buy a gas cooker for a parish hall or a generator to enable the hall to be a community hub in an extended power outage etc. Each parish submitted a shopping list request and we appear to have been very successful so we are urging other communities to come forward and put in their bids.”

For further information contact : https://www.ssepd.co.uk/Resiliencefund/ or call 0141 224 7191