Dromara Community Resilience Group urges householders to ‘Be Ready’ with new resilience plan.

December 13, 2017

Dromara Community Resilience Group, in conjunction with local partners from the emergency services, has launched the Dromara Community Resilience Plan following 12 months of collaboration, planning and preparation.   The plan contains a range of useful information on local risk assessment, personal clearance of snow – The Snow Code - emergency contact and volunteer information and resources and emergency arrangements.

The group is made up of volunteers from the Dromara Community Association, Dromara Youth Group, local churches, Dromara Primary School, local councillors and members of the community. As part of their research in creating the plan, the volunteers met representatives from the emergency services, drainage agencies, health trusts, voluntary agencies and Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council.

Dromara Community Resilience Group has also located and identified emergency equipment such as sandbag containers for flooding and snow clearance equipment. A “Be Ready” resilience folder containing a General Household Emergency Life-Saving Plan, Severe Weather Plan and Community Resilience Questionnaire will be delivered to each home in Dromara in December to help the community be better prepared for emergency or severe weather situations. 

Cllr Janet Gray, Vice Chair of the Environmental Services Committee at Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council said at the launch, “This resilience plan demonstrates what can be achieved by a group of committed volunteers. Volunteers are essential in supporting and assisting the community to prepare and recover following an event or incident and the Community Resilience Questionnaire in the pack asks for additional local residents to join the group.

There is an opportunity for everyone within the community to make a contribution; from clearing snow from pathways to making hot drinks in the village hall to assisting those who may be in greater need of support.”