What would Boscastle do if the power went off for three days?

The lights go out tonight. The phone line is dead, the internet has gone with it, and it stays that way for three days. Who do you call, and who would you go and check on?

Those were the questions put to people in Boscastle on Thursday (15 October), when emergency services, utility companies and local volunteers set up under one roof to talk about what happens when things go wrong.

📷Credit: Devon & Cornwall Police

An open day built around one question

Forrabury & Minster Parish Council organised the Community Resilience & Emergency Preparedness Open Day, a free drop-in event that ran from 2pm to 6pm at Boscastle Community & Recreation Centre.

Devon & Cornwall Police was among those invited along. Officers said they were pleased to be involved, helping to explain how organisations and residents can work together to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.

📷Credit: Devon & Cornwall Police

Who was there

The event brought together local organisations, volunteers and community groups alongside larger national companies. As well as the police, the organisations involved were:

• Cornwall Council Emergency Management
• Cornwall Community Flood Forum
• Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service
• HM Coastguard (Boscastle)
• South Western Ambulance Service
• National Grid
• South West Water
• Volunteer Cornwall
• Bottreaux Surgery Patient Participation Group

Between them they covered a wide range of situations, from severe weather and flooding to extended power cuts, public health emergencies and disruption to essential services.

📷Credit: Devon & Cornwall Police

The simple steps that make a difference

None of the advice involved specialist kit. Residents were encouraged to think about a few practical things they can do now:

• Keep emergency contact numbers to hand.
• Keep a basic emergency kit in the house.
• Check on vulnerable neighbours.
• Have a plan for what you would do during an emergency.

The parish council’s own material carries the same message. Its HELP Household Emergency Lifesaving Plan sets out simple steps every household can take to prepare, protect loved ones and support neighbours, and its Community Emergency Plan leaflet points out that while emergency services will attend in most cases, help can be delayed in rural areas.

📷Credit: Devon & Cornwall Police

Why Boscastle is thinking about this

Few places in Boscastle‘s position need reminding. Display boards at the event traced the parish’s journey back to the flash flood of 16 August 2004, when more than 200 people were rescued and no lives were lost.

The boards also showed how the thinking has moved on since. The withdrawal of the traditional copper telephone network across the UK raised a fresh question for a rural coastal community with a history of communication problems during emergencies, and what began as a telephone concern became a wider conversation about resilience. That led the parish council to start developing a Community Emergency Plan for today’s risks.

Where to find the plan

Details of the Community Emergency Plan and household advice are on the parish council’s emergency page at forraburyminsterparishcouncil.org.uk/emergency.

The last board in the hall carried a line that sums up where the parish has landed: community resilience is built before an emergency, and it begins with community.

📷Credit: Devon & Cornwall Police