Places of safety and rest centres

What a rest centre is

The clearest definition on GOV.UK is in A Guide to Emergency Planning Arrangements in Northern Ireland. Its glossary says a rest centre is a building where people evacuated from premises can go to receive appropriate shelter and welfare care until they can return to the evacuated area or be otherwise accommodated. The guide calls the rest centre central to the practical support given in an evacuation, and says the facilities offered depend on the event and on who has been evacuated.

The same guide describes evacuation as normally a last resort, used where there is obvious danger and buildings would give inadequate protection, and warns that moving people must not expose them to more danger than sheltering would. An assembly point is a place on the edge of an evacuation zone where people gather for information, wait for transport to a rest centre, and meet friends and relatives. Pre-identified rest centres can be checked in advance for accessibility, disabled facilities and safety for young children.

Those arrangements are Northern Ireland's. The Emergency Response and Recovery guidance for the rest of the UK lists local councils, the voluntary sector and the community among the agencies involved in response and recovery.

Who opens one

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight template deals with this directly. The local authority may open one of the rest centres on its list, but community plan holders may be asked to open a building to provide an initial place of safety before the local authority arrives. It marks one instruction as important: if the plan holders decide to open a building for shelter or welfare, they should let the nominated contact within the relevant local authority know.

The Be Ready flooding page gives the household side of the same arrangement. If a home is flood damaged and cannot be lived in, the household should contact the local council for help getting emergency accommodation. See flooding.

Choosing buildings for the plan

The template asks the group to consider places that could be used by people who have to evacuate, or as a centre where they can get information: community centres, places of worship or large indoor spaces. Before listing any building, contact its managers to confirm availability and suitability, because some buildings may already be designated as rest centres by the local authority. The template suggests asking those managers to read the plan and perhaps become coordinators or volunteers. Its table records the name, address, contact information, who will contact them in an emergency, and the venue capacity.

The same thinking applies to where the coordinators meet. The planned location might itself be affected by the risk, or might lack water, power or phones because of it, so a back-up is essential: somewhere stable, easy to find and easy to access.

Community emergency hubs in Dorset

Dorset Prepared is developing a related idea it calls a community emergency hub: a place where neighbours can go to help each other in a major emergency, run by community members without official assistance. It suggests a religious building, a pub, a leisure centre, a library or a school. Each hub has a guide setting out roles such as hub supervisor, information officer, receptionist and welfare officer. Any building used must support people with the basic essentials, which the forum lists as water, toilets and insurance cover. A hub is unlikely to come with food, so the community has to consider how it would feed people who have been evacuated.