Community mesh communications absent from UK civil resilience doctrine

LoRa mesh (Meshtastic) is cheap, encrypted and licence-exempt in the UK (868MHz), and hobbyists already run a national MQTT-bridged emergency text network (meshtastic.sytes.net) plus preparedness groups like UKSN. But Local Resilience Forums and national resilience guidance assign no role, standard kit list or funding to neighbourhood-level data mesh. RAYNET provides recognised amateur-radio voice support to emergency services, but nothing covers community-owned digital messaging that survives power and telecoms outages, a gap highlighted by Storm Éowyn-class events and the 2025 Iberian blackout.

When mobile networks fail, communities currently have no sanctioned, practised fallback for local digital coordination. The hardware costs tens of pounds; the missing ingredient is doctrine, training and modest procurement: classic under-provisioned public-good territory.

A Cabinet Office/MHCLG community resilience communications pilot funding mesh starter kits and training through Local Resilience Forums and town/parish councils, with published interoperability and governance guidance.

// Build together: Counterparty: one volunteer LRF or town/parish council for a mesh pilot; Cabinet Office sponsorship is the end-state.

Cheap hardware and hobbyist networks already exist but resilience doctrine assigns them no role; stakes hinge on rare outages and no deadline pushes procurement.