Bough Beech

Prolonged broadband and phone line outage leads to a rethink on local resilience

This case study features Chiddingstone Parish Councillor Kerry Outlaw discussing how the entire village of Bough Beech in rural west Kent was impacted by an internet and land line phone outage for 11 days following a road traffic collision.

Cllr Outlaw outlines the challenges it placed on this rural community and what they learned. She also highlights how helpful it would have been to have had a community resilience plan in place to support residents during this incident.

It has since prompted a pilot project to create a community resilience plan across a cluster of neighbouring parishes, looking at jointly planning for all different types of potential risks and emergencies that could impact the area.

Do you need help to create your parish council community resilience plan?

Visit our community resilience planning page for guidance and templates

Or email our team for support at KRFcommunityresilience@kent.fire-uk.org