It is a scheme established by Priston Parish Council whereby villagers are made aware of and can respond to an incident requiring IMMEDIATE action, in order to provide a first response before the arrival of emergency/specialist services.
An incident which threatens bodily injury, serious damage to property or any other incident where one would need to call 999 for an emergency service.
A dedicated “WhatsApp” Group - Priston Emergency Group (PEG) - has been set up by the Parish Council specifically for use in emergency situations requiring an immediate response.
The absolute minimum time the village could expect the arrival of an emergency responder is 20 minutes and can be as much as an hour or more. It is during this time that there is a need for villagers to take action to reduce the risks.
If you would like to be able to summon help from villagers in the event of an emergency, or have skills, tools, equipment and/or willingness which would help in such situations the Parish Council would be extremely grateful if you would join the PEG WhatsApp group.
You need a smartphone with WhatsApp installed. If you do not have WhatsApp installed this can be done simply and for free from the Google Play Store/Apple App Store for Android/iPhone smartphones respectively.
Then just send a WhatsApp message requesting addition to PEG to Richard Bottle (0780 1371623) or email him on web@priston.org.uk providing your name and mobile number.
Note also that PEG is intended only for emergency use and not for general village discussion.
If you have any general queries or suggestions regarding the Parish Council's Priston Emergency Group please contact Peter Hopwood.
If you have any technical queries please contact Richard Bottle.
ALWAYS call 999 first before using the WhatsApp Priston Emergency Group.
A consequence of living in our rural location is that our mobile signal can be somwhat erratic. The ability to use our mobile phones can be crucial to our ability to call for help in an emergency, as well as to managing day-to-day aspects of our lives.
Most mobile service providers have a facility called WiFi Calling:
To start use WiFi Calling all you normally need to do is select the correct Settings on your phone. Just Google "WiFi Calling" plus [your service provider] eg O2, Vodafone and follow the instructions. Your phone will then automatically switch between WiFi Calling and using your mobile signal as required.
Note WiFi Calling is not currently supported by some mobile service providers eg. Giff Gaff, and may not be supported for all phone models - check your mobile service provider's instructions for details.
In a rural location such as ours, it can be difficult to communicate where you are, or the location of an emergency.
what3words is a Smartphone app, available free on Android and iPhone, that enables you to identify precisely where you are using just 3 words. This locates you to a specific 3 metre square anywhere in the world.
For instance the walnut tree on the village green is located at "roofed.crawler.fruits".
This method is now recognised by our Emergency Services, and so can be used in a 999 call as an easy method of reporting the location of an incident. what3words locations can also be shared using WhatsApp.
For further information visit the what3words website or search for "what3words" on the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
To save time in an emergency, you can create a shortcut to the PEG WhatsApp group on your phone:
If you are able to make a voice call to 999 this is much the best option. However, you might want to send an SMS text message to 999 in the following circumstances:
To send an SMS text message to 999, you need to register your phone for the 999 text service beforehand. It is obviously a good idea to do this before any emergency! To register:
If you later need to send an emergency text message, make sure you include the following information