Village resilience plan

Auchencairn’s resilience plan is an agreed answer to one question: what do we do if the village is cut off? In a serious storm, a long power cut or a road closure, the emergency services deal with the most urgent cases first and a rural village may be on its own for some hours.

In an emergency, always ring 999 first. Nothing on this page is a substitute for that, and nobody is watching this website.

What could happen here

The council keeps a register of the things most likely to affect Auchencairn, what each would mean for the village, and what can be done about it. It is published on purpose — knowing that the burn floods is more use to you than to us.

When the plan starts

The plan does not run itself, and it is not started by a weather warning. Two members of the response team have to agree it is time.

1. The emergency services or the council tell us about something affecting the village.
2. Somebody in the village reports something that is beyond one household to deal with.
3. Two members of the response team agree it is time to start. One person on their own does not activate the plan.
4. A weather or flood warning on its own is NOT enough. It is a reason to talk to each other, not to start the plan.

What happens first

1. If anybody is in danger, ring 999. Nothing else comes before that.
2. Tell the council and the emergency services that the plan has been started, and give them a number to reach us on.
3. Start the calling order, so the rest of the team knows.
4. Open the incident log on the website, or start the paper sheet if there is no signal.
5. Decide whether a hall needs opening, and who has the key.
6. Work through the check-on list, starting with the people who live alone.
7. Write down what is decided and who is doing it. Nobody remembers afterwards.
8. Do not put yourself or anybody else at risk to do any of this.

What the first meeting covers

A team meeting in a hall at nine at night, with people arriving wet, is exactly when somebody forgets to ask about the check-on list. So it is written down.

1. What has happened, as far as anybody knows. Say what is guessed and what is confirmed.
2. Who is here, and who is missing from the team.
3. Has the council been told? Have the emergency services?
4. The check-on list — who has been reached, who has not.
5. What we have: halls, generators, vehicles, people.
6. What we are going to do, who is doing it, and by when.
7. How we will tell the village.
8. When we meet again.

Who runs it

A small team, who between them keep the plan up to date and would organise the response. Personal numbers are not published — where a number is shown, it is one the person is happy to have on a website.

The response team has not been set up yet.

How word gets round

Each person rings the people below them, so that nobody is waiting on one telephone call that never comes.

The calling order has not been set up yet.

How the village is told

The calling order reaches the team. These are how the team reaches everybody else — and each one has somebody who has agreed to operate it, because a Facebook group nobody has agreed to post to is not a way of telling anybody anything.

Nothing has been recorded here yet.

Mobile signal is patchy in parts of the village, and a power cut takes broadband and cordless telephones with it. A radio that runs on batteries, and a telephone that plugs into the wall, both keep working when nothing else does.

Next door

Neighbouring communities, and whether they have a plan of their own. An emergency rarely stops at a parish boundary, and two villages that have spoken beforehand are worth a good deal more than two that have not.

Nothing has been recorded here yet.

Make a plan for your own house

The first hour of anything is every household on its own, and this plan does not reach into anybody’s kitchen. There is a one-page sheet to print and fill in together — where the stopcock is, which neighbour has a key, who fetches the children. It takes ten minutes and it is the most useful thing a household can do.

The household plan sheet

Offering to help

The plan is only as good as the number of people in it. Volunteering does not commit you to anything dramatic — most of it is being willing to check on a neighbour or lend a piece of equipment.

Leave this field empty

Your name (required)

Email address (required)

Telephone

Optional, but on the night a phone number is worth more than an email address.

Which part of the village are you in?

So rounds can be arranged by who is nearest. A street name is plenty.

What would you be willing to do?

Tick anything that applies. None of it commits you to being available on any particular day.

Check on neighbours Drive — I have a 4×4 or similar Lend a generator Clear a fallen tree Offer a warm room or a bed First aid training Help open and run the hall

I have read what volunteers agree to, and I accept it.

In short: you may look at the list only to help somebody, you do not copy or share it, and you tell the coordinator at once if you lose the phone or device it is on.

Send my offer

Sending this does not give you access to anything. A councillor reads every offer and decides.

Equipment in the village

• Grit bins

  Locations to be confirmed.

  Not checked recently — please confirm before relying on it

• Sandbags

  Where they are kept, to be confirmed.

  Not checked recently — please confirm before relying on it

Where to go

• Public access defibrillator

  Outside the Community Store, Heughan House, Main Street. Ring 999 first — the operator will confirm the nearest one and give you the access code if it is locked. Still to confirm: a photograph of exactly where it is on the building, and who checks it and how often.

  Not checked recently — please confirm before relying on it

• The Murray Hall

  The gathering point if the hall is usable and has power.

  Not checked recently — please confirm before relying on it

Numbers that matter

• Dumfries and Galloway Council — out of hours

  Number to be confirmed with the council.

  Not checked recently — please confirm before relying on it

• Scottish Water — emergencies

  Number to be confirmed with Scottish Water.

  Not checked recently — please confirm before relying on it

• SEPA Floodline

  Number to be confirmed.

  Not checked recently — please confirm before relying on it

Being checked on

The council keeps a private list of people who would like somebody to call round if the village is cut off — because they live alone, or because a long power cut would be more than an inconvenience for them.

To go on it, or to come off it, speak to a councillor. It is deliberately not a form on this website: the people most likely to need checking on are the least likely to fill one in, and it is a conversation worth having in person.

What is held, and who can see it

• Approved volunteers see your name, address, what3words reference, a note about getting in, a phone number, and whether you live alone — enough to knock on the right door.
• Only the coordinator sees anything you have said about why you are on the list or about equipment a power cut would affect. That part is encrypted, is never printed on the volunteers’ sheet, and is never sent by email.
• Volunteers are approved by a councillor, one at a time. Offering to help gives nobody access to anything.
• You can ask to see, change or delete your entry at any time, and it will be deleted, not hidden.
• Entries are confirmed every year. If nobody has been able to check yours for two years it is set aside — it comes off the volunteers’ round and out of the printed sheets, so that nobody acts on details that may be out of date. It is not deleted, and a councillor will try to get in touch before deciding anything.

The written plan

Nothing has been published here yet.

Volunteers carry a printed copy of the register. This website is how it is kept correct — it is not what anybody relies on during a power cut.

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Version 1, adopted 14 February 2026, last reviewed 17 August 2026. Questions about the plan.