Great Yarmouth Community Resilience Market Stall

Wednesday 14 September 2015

Observer Notes and Group Observations

The market stall took place on Wednesday 14 September, in Great Yarmouth market place, to promote flood awareness. The stall consisted of a number of community resilience volunteers and was also attended by the environment agency and Lowland Rescue.

Objective:

The main objective of the day was to raise awareness of flood risks in great Yarmouth and the surrounding area and provide people with information on how to help to prepare for flood events. This was done in a number of ways. Lowland rescue arrived on the day with one of their 4x4 rescue trucks as a display, as well as taking part in a number of demonstrations throughout the day on river safety and how to help a drowning person in distress.

The Environment Agency provided a number of different mediums to help illustrate issues raised in flooding. They provided a flood height chart where the public could estimate how high water levels got in certain localized flooding events around great Yarmouth. They also had a display of the things people should take with them in an emergency, as well as providing a number of different leaflets on flood preparation.

On the Comeunity stall we displayed a number of maps of the Great Yarmouth area depicting the flood risk zones. We also were providing a number of different pieces of literature, ranging from FloodRE and protecting your business, to an information booklet on services that provide flood defences and the 5 steps to protecting your home. We were also giving out Fat Traps provided by Anglian water.

Observations:

There was a good foot fall on the market

The Environment Agency was supposed to arrive on the day with their Sprinter van which had TV displays and other demonstrations to show the public. Unfortunately it broke down the day before. Thankfully the environment Agency had a backup which although was not as high Tec, did still provide some interesting and useful information.

The volunteers were very engaging with the public

There were some misconceptions of why were there. Some people thought we were part of Environmental Health. Some wanted to lodge complaints they had. While this was not possible for volunteers, Alison Billet was present for a large proportion of the day and was able to take information for these people and talk them through the process of dealing with said issues.

Things that went well

The Environment Agency counted that they had 30 in depth talks (talks surpassing 5 minutes) with local people about flood risk and preparedness.

We had a good turn out from volunteers to help on the Market stall

Lowland rescues demonstrations helped capture the public attention

As it was market day there was a large footfall.

Things that didn’t go well:

While there was a large foot fall there were many people very uninterested in the stalls. There was also a country singer on the market on the same day which drew a lot of the people away from our stall.

Having the Environment Agency Sprinter van break down the day before the event.

Conclusion:

There are a number of positives that can be drawn from the event. Thanks to the involvement of Lowland rescue and the Environment Agency we had a large presence on the market place and helped to attract people to our stall. The demonstrations by Lowland Rescue also helped to catch the public’s attention.

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank Chris Chapman from the Environment Agency and Jim Whiteside from Lowland Rescue for attending the event, and all the volunteers that helped on the market stall.