The first phase was introduced at the Boston Spa Festival’s Party in the Park in July 2025, with an informational booth and distribution of leaflets providing details of how to prepare for a potential emergency, including a list of supplies to have on hand.
For the second phase, more than 2,000 letters were hand-delivered to homes in the village in November 2025, again providing information (with a recap of Phase I) and asking for volunteers who would be prepared to help in the event of an emergency. This resulted in 15 volunteers coming forward, offering assistance in the medical field, engineering/construction, and administration. A big thank you to the volunteers!
The third phase is now in progress. The working group has prepared a stratified risk register of potential emergencies. These include severe weather, utility outages, another health pandemic, flooding (likely to be local/limited), cyber risk, public disorder, malicious attack – with the last two considered to be lower in risk.
The Parish Council’s foremost role is to communicate in the event of an emergency, followed by coordinating support as needed, as well as working with other regional and national emergency services and statutory responders. Severe weather is likely to hold the greatest risk for us, which could be accompanied and compounded by some of the other risks listed, e.g. power or other utility outage and flooding.
In the event of an emergency, particularly if it involves an extended power outage, the Village Hall will serve as the information hub and ‘rest centre’. Additional support will be provided by the Leeds Emergency Team, i.e. they would coordinate additional resources. St. Mary’s Church and the Methodist Church may also be available to provide shelter, etc., if required.
We welcome any comments or ideas, and/or for more information please contact Anne Watts at anne.watts@bostonspapc.org.uk .