HomeBelfast Resilience working groups
Belfast Resilience currently has ten working groups.
Each working group brings together individuals from different organisations who all have specialist knowledge of a particular subject.
The groups are then tasked to produce operational and tactical emergency plans in relation to their particular subject.
These plans will then form part of an overall emergency plan for the whole of Belfast.
The working groups are:
- Belfast Harbour Working Group
- Emergency Support Centres Working Group
- Flooding Working Group
- Voluntary Organisations Working Group
- Utilities Working Group
- Mass Fatalities Working Group
- First Responders Working Group
- Public Information and Media Working Group
- Recovery Working Group
- Risk Assessment Working Group
Belfast Harbour Working Group
This group has produced an emergency plan to address potential risks within Belfast Harbour Estate.The plan deals with issues relating to:
- the control of major accident hazards (COMAH)
- the transport of dangerous goods through the Port of Belfast
- accidents which occur in waters within the Port of Belfast’s limits
- accidents which happen at sea and use the port to come ashore
- the cruise ships which dock in Belfast.
Estate. This includes:
- Odyssey Arena and Complex
- Titanic Quarter
- retail outlets
- passenger ferries.
Emergency Support Centres Working Group
This group aims to provide facilities for people who may be affected by an emergency in Belfast.This potentially includes:
- a rest centre for people who have been evacuated from their homes for a short period
- a survivor reception centre or secure area where survivors of an incident who do not require hospital treatment can be taken for short-term shelter, first aid and interviewing
- a ‘friends and relatives’ reception centre - this is a secure area set aside for friends and relatives of those involved in a major incident.
It has also considered the welfare needs of emergency support centre staff and users.
Flooding Working Group
All of the organisations which respond to flooding incidents in Belfast are involved in this group.The group has created a plan to agree how to share information and improve co-ordination between organisations before and during flooding. The overall aim is to reduce the disruption and impact flooding has on communities and businesses.
Voluntary Organisations Working Group
This group is made up of representatives from voluntary organisations from across Belfast. They are currently producing a plan to explain the type of support they can each provide in an emergency, for example, first aid, food, advice and counselling.Utilities Working Group
This group meets to raise awareness of the role and needs of utilities companies during emergencies. The group includes representatives from all the utilities in Northern Ireland, including electricity, water, gas, communications and fuel.Mass Fatalities Working Group
This group has developed a plan for fatalities if a major incident occurs in Belfast. The plan provides agreement on how all the relevant agencies would work together in a controlled way.
The plan notes procedures which should be out in place to respect the religious and cultural beliefs of the deceased and their relatives. This is in line with similar provisions in the UK and Ireland.
First Responders Working Group
In a major emergency, it is vital that all organisations work together in an efficient and controlled way.This group has developed a plan to show how all the emergency services will work together to respond to major incidents in the Belfast City Council electoral area. It is now working to improve the evacuation plan for central Belfast and the harbour estate and to help businesses to be better prepared to help themselves in emergencies.
The group meets regularly to discuss recent incidents when the emergency services and other public service organisations have responded together to help the public. This helps the organisations to improve how they work together in future incidents.
The group also shares information about large events which are due to take place in Belfast.
Public Information and Media Working Group
This group has developed a strategy to co-ordinate how information, advice and instructions are delivered to members of the public and the media before, during and after potential or real major incidents.
Recovery Working Group
Recovery is defined as ‘the process of restoring and rebuilding the community in the aftermath of a major emergency or incident’.Once the initial emergency has been dealt with and the immediate effects have eased, the long-term effects have to be dealt with.
This includes issues which affect individual people or communities like health, transport, communications, the environment, the economy and even legal action.
The Recovery group has drawn up a Recovery Plan to help communities return to normal after an incident.
Risk Assessment Working Group
This group has compiled a Community Risk Register (CRR) for the Belfast City Council electoral area. The CRR identifies the biggest risks facing the community and rates them from ‘negligible’ to ‘very high’.These ratings are based on the combination of the likelihood of the risk occurring and its probable impact.
The CRR is regularly reviewed and updated by the group.
