BRFM Council announces cold weather emergency protocol
Written by karen on 5 February 2018
Extra support for homeless in cold weather.
With temperatures continuing to drop this evening and tonight across the borough, Swale Borough Council have put their “Cold weather emergency protocol” in to place.
The council based in Swale House in Sittingbourne have said “ We are committed to helping people who are rough sleeping find somewhere to live, but we recognise that this is not always successful. During times of extreme and cold weather, we operate a Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) which we put in place to help people sleeping on the streets”
The SWEP is activated when the night-time temperature is predicted to be zero degrees Celsius or below for three consecutive nights. Once the protocol is triggered, we contact our voluntary and statutory sector partners to advise that the SWEP is in place. We also notify our out-of-hours service.
Once the SWEP has been activated, during office hours anyone rough sleeping should contact the Housing Options team by calling 01795 417485 or coming into Swale House, Sittingbourne to use our phones.
Outside of these times, our out-of-hours homeless service will arrange to place rough sleepers in emergency accommodation while the SWEP is in place. They can be contacted on 01634 304400.
While emergency accommodation will no longer be provided once the minimum temperature is predicted to rise above zero degrees Celsius, rough sleepers will be offered an appointment with Housing Options who can provide advice to deal with their longer-term homelessness.
Temperatures tonight across swale could drop to zero, with forecasters expecting icy conditions by morning and lows of -1 Celsius for Tuesday.
