Agenda item

The item was introduced by Ben Brook (Chief Fire Officer), who reminded members the decision had been taken by Cabinet to publicly consult on option 2A. The consultation had now opened and would run until 10 March. A dedicated website had been set up that gave details of public meetings, data sets used in the modelling process, and how to take part in the consultation. Ben Brook said the costings had been independently verified by a Section 151 finance officer with more than 30 years of experience in the fire and rescue and other public sectors, and the proposals had been examined by another Chief Fire Officer. Ben Brook said the five years of data that was analysed had been broken down into two sets of two years either side of Covid and trends were looked at in these data sets, in addition to the overall figures derived from the five year period to give a clearer overall picture that took the Covid period into consideration.

Ben Brook said five public meetings would be taking place, and WFRS would be meeting with town and parish councils and business forums. More meetings could be arranged if necessary. Residents would be able to respond to the consultation online or via a paper submission if one was requested.

Councillor Boad said there had already been a lot of interest in the consultation, but this had resulted in a lot of confused and incorrect information being circulated on social media. She asked how often the WFRS social media feeds were monitored so the correct information could be put out. Councillor Boad said a lot of concerns had been raised over cover in the Stratford area, particularly as it appeared there would be three appliances covering a significant portion of the county between 10pm-8am. She said there needed to be a greater explanation as to how this would work, and also what a surge team was and how it would operate. Councillor Boad asked if members could be kept informed as to what was happening with the consultation so they would be able to answer any questions residents may have. Ben Brook said it was important the correct information was put out, which was why the public meetings and workshops were taking place. He said WFRS was open to suggestions for other methods of obtaining solutions. Ben Brook said the rationale behind the proposed reconfiguration was so greater resources could be in place where they were more likely to be used. He said there were, on average, 85 incidents in Nuneaton each year where life and/or property was in danger, compared to areas like Bidford or Fenny Compton where the number of incidents was in single figures. He said if the WFRS budget allowed for appliances to be at a greater number of locations then they would be.

Responding to questions from Councillor Feeney, Ben Brook said WFRS was receiving a large number of requests for data and other queries. It was anticipated the frequently asked questions section of the consultation website would be updated every two weeks through the cycle of the three month consultation. Ben Brook said he was co-Chair of the Local Resilience Forum with officers from the other emergency services, and they had had the opportunity to input their views into the consultation.

Responding to a question from Councillor Sinclair, Ben Brook said availability at some on-call fire stations was less than 50 per cent. Information on the surge teams and how they would work would be provided at the meetings and workshops. He said that work was already underway to analyse the results of the consultation, and for it to be reviewed by Cabinet prior to a final decision being made by Full Council in July. Members asked if the results of the consultation could be looked at by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and it was agreed this would take place.

Councillor Boad said it was important residents were not disenfranchised, and paper versions of response slips were available in appropriate locations such as libraries and fire stations. Members agreed to this, although Councillor Crump said not all fire stations were open all the time so it would not necessarily be feasible for people to pick up a form.

Members noted the contents of the report. They asked for the report to return to the Committee for an update prior to the decision being made by Full Council, and for copies of the consultation documents to be made publicly available at libraries and fire stations to allow as many people as possible to participate.