Planning for Power Loss
17th March 2023
Cumbria Local Resilience Forum, the partnership which brings together organisations across Cumbria to plan for major emergencies, is updating its plan responding to widespread and prolonged loss of electricity.
As part of the planning, we'd like to know which buildings in local communities might be used as "hubs" during a power cut - places that would be able to open and provide hot drinks and company.
We know that some community buildings have generators or back up batteries, and so might be able to operate "as normal" for a period during a power cut - whilst others might be able to make hot drinks on gas stoves without power - but we don't currently have a good list of all of these "community hubs".
We're keen to hear about all of these; you can tell us more via this survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PowerLoss
Please don't worry that completing the questionnaire is committing you to being able to open up your community building during every power cut - we know that it won't always be possible, and that's OK. Completing the questionnaire by Monday 17 April 2023 would be very helpful.
If you've got any questions, you can contact Jozi Brown at ACTion with communities in Cumbria, via email jozibrown@cumbriaaction.org.uk or telephone (01768) 425648
Also, don't forget that Electricity North West has a free Extra Care register, which is their dedicated service for households looking for a little extra help and support during a power cut. If you think this will be useful to people in your community, they can find out more, and register here: https://www.enwl.co.uk/power-cuts/extra-care/