STEPS are being taken to ensure Dunbar and the surrounding area can cope with just about any sort of emergency.

Sue Guy, from Sustaining Dunbar, originally met with members of the town’s community council in December to help develop a plan to see the town deal with any major issues.

That could range from bad weather to a train derailment or a major road traffic accident.

Mrs Guy was back at the community council recently with a letter she plans to send out to all the community groups in the Dunbar and East Linton ward.

She said: “Many of the major essential emergency contacts at the ward scale are the same; however, at a more micro and neighbourhood scale, there may be a need to identify contacts, skills, equipment, etc, perceived by the groups as potentially useful in local emergencies (whatever these may be and as identified by the local groups themselves).” Mrs Guy was keen to “strengthen links and connections between neighbours and between community groups”.

Sustaining Dunbar’s neighbourhood resilience planning programme has been endorsed by East Lothian Council, which has offered to assist in helping to promote what it is doing.

The project facilitator said: “Our overarching aim as an organisation and with our funded project is to enhance the resilience of communities in Ward 7 so that we are prepared for, and can respond creatively, to the major challenges that lie ahead.” Now, a sub-group of the town’s community council is set to sit down with Mrs Guy to thrash out the details before a formal plan comes forward.

Once aims and objectives are agreed, it is hoped local resilience action planning sessions will be set up with anyone in the area who is interested in helping to develop the scheme.

A special website could also be created, with specific pages linked to all the community councils’ emergency plans.