Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP)
In winter SWEP is triggered when the night time temperature is predicted to be zero degrees celsius or below throughout the full length of a single night - or there are extenuating circumstances accompanying the predicted zero degrees celsius temperature. The extenuating circumstances will be determined by the council's Housing Options team.
When the SWEP is triggered, we will provide emergency accommodation for any person sleeping rough in the district.
The protocol aims to minimise risks to these people during periods of severe weather and provides an opportunity to engage with hard-to-reach groups and signpost them to appropriate support services.
Anyone sleeping rough who wishes to be considered for shelter under SWEP should contact the Civic Centre before 4pm on 01303 853000. After 4pm, if a person is seeking shelter for that same night, then the council's out of hours team can be contacted on 0300 003 0247 until 10pm.
Kennelling when the SWEP is active
We arrange free of charge kennelling for the dogs of people who need emergency accommodation due to SWEP.
- if a person contacts us between 10am and 4pm their dog can be placed in our holding kennel until it can be transferred to the main kennels.
- if a person contacts the council between 4pm and 10pm, the out-of-hours emergency kennelling procedures will be implemented. The person will be met so their dog can be collected and transferred to the kennels and the owner of the dog can go to the accommodation booked for them.
A dog cannot be visited whilst in kennels and will be reunited with the owner once SWEP has ended.
Read the Severe weather emergency protocol - SWEP (PDF, 71KB).