EMERGENCY planners are joining forces with town chiefs in Romsey to help ensure that the town is ready for when the “unthinkable happens”.

Devastating flooding, major gas leaks, freak weather, these are just some of the instances that staff at Romsey Town Hall hope they can prepare for.

They hope to put together a “community risk register” in order to prepare for something which leads to catastrophic consequences in the Romsey area.

Following on from the floods two years ago emergency resilience consultant Mark Taylor has offered his services for free in order that his hometown will be ready if another disaster occurs.

Mark, a university lecturer from Winchester Road, said the types of emergency would be everything up to and including a “terrorist incident”.

Mark, company director of Total Resilience Ltd, said: “It isn’t about any one type of disaster, there’s nothing to say we won’t get a chemical tanker that over turns on the bypass.”

He has joined forces with town clerk Judith Giles to put together the register.

He added it was about making sure that vulnerable people across Romsey were protected.

“The emergency services can’t be everywhere. It’s about us saying, we’ve got a problem, what can we do for ourselves and sustain ourselves,” he said.

After being approached by Mark, town councillor Ian Richards – who was town mayor when the floods struck in 2014 – put the idea to the town council.

He said: “We need to have a plan and my idea is that all the businesses and volunteers in the town come forward to say that what they can offer.

“There a continuity in that we have always got a town clerk. We have someone who can hold that plan, a complete list of voluntary groups, business who can lend a hand.”

He added “it’s so that we can work together knowing what each resource has to offer” and can be of benefit to the emergency services to support them.

As well as Town Hall having a list of resources available it would also be given to the emergency services so that they would know about it too.

Town Clerk Judith Giles wanted people to come forward and let them know what they can offer to help in times of need.

She said: “We were caught off-guard [two years ago], there wasn’t an emergency plan. It was all done a bit off the hoof. With something in place, if it ever happens again, we will know who to call so that we can get things done,” she said.

Any businesses or organisations which would like to take part should contact 01794 512837 or email townclerk@romseytc.org.uk