Devon Community Resilience Forum (DCRF) supports communities to develop their own Community Emergency Plans to keep people and property safe in the case of emergency situations.
On 3 January 2026, a contractor punctured the main gas line serving Kingsbridge, Salcombe, Malborough and nearby parishes, leaving around 5,000 homes without gas during severe cold weather. Initially, there was little information about the scale of the incident or how quickly supplies could be restored.
Kingsbridge Town Council quickly activated its Community Emergency Plan, establishing a control centre, coordinating communications between parishes and the utility provider, and helping deliver heaters and supplies to vulnerable residents.
Although reconnection took a week, the Community Emergency Plan significantly reduced the impact by providing both practical support and vital communications to residents and partners. Following the incident, several neighbouring parishes without emergency plans approached DCRF for support in developing one.
Picture caption: Seats in Kingsbridge by Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
