Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council provides a 24 hour Civil Contingencies function.

The principal Civil Contingencies role is to ensure the council can respond to major emergencies and disruptions whilst still maintaining the ability to provide key services.  It does this by having integrated arrangements in place (plans, procedures, training, etc.) that will enable the response to be as effective as possible.  These planning arrangements involve other partner agencies such as the Police, Fire & Rescue Service, Ambulance, Health, Environment Agency, Military, Utilities and the Voluntary Sector.  The planning arrangements also include Regional and Central Government and other Local Authorities.

The service also leads the Corporate Risk Management function, the Corporate Business Continuity function and the Safety Advisory Group for major events in Blaenau Gwent.

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 requires Local Responders to undertake a number of statutory duties, one of which is to maintain and publish a Community Risk Register as part of a risk based planning process.

For further information on emergencies visit the Preparing for Emergencies website, the Wales Resilience website and the new Gwent Local Resilience Forum website.

(see links opposite)