The cover is shown above. Scroll down for links to the document and the feedback form.

27 October 2008

Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service is facing unprecedented challenges because of rising costs and a squeeze on funding, say the people in charge.

Now Chief Fire Officer Damian Smith and Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire Authority Chairman Councillor David Rowlands are seeking your views following the publication of a draft blueprint covering the next three years.

The Integrated Risk Management Plan for 2009-2012 highlights the ways in which Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service’s prevention, protection and response strategy will dovetail with other emergency and local authority services in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes.

Councillor David Rowlands, Chairman of Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire Authority, said: “We will work with our communities to help them avoid emergency incidents such as fires and road traffic collisions in the first place, and to provide them with some form of protection – for example smoke alarms, which can literally be the difference between life and death in some situations.

“In many cases this work will be done hand in hand with other organisations including the police, the health and ambulance services and councils, all of whom have a vested interest in protecting the lives of the people they serve.

“Our firefighters will also continue to provide the first-class response that everyone knows and expects – indeed, it has become our trademark – from the 20 fire stations and 40-plus fleet of fire and rescue vehicles in Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes.”

Many of the initiatives detailed in the 76-page document are designed to improve the safety of specific groups of people whose risk of suffering an emergency incident is higher than average, including elderly people and young drivers.

For example, the organisation plans to double the number of home safety checks it carries out every year to 10,000 a year by 2012. These will initially be targeted at the people most at risk of fire.

Councillor Rowlands continued: “We are doing all of this against a backdrop of funding that comes nowhere near offsetting inflation, and significant increases in many of our costs – particularly fuel.

“Our government funding next year will be 0.5 per cent higher than the current year, yet inflation is running at about 10 times that figure.

“There’s a limit to how much we can expect council tax payers to make up the difference, both in terms of what they are prepared to pay and how much we are allowed to ask them for.

“We are facing a shortfall of about £1 million next year and even more the year after. We are therefore having to look at savings we can make that will not compromise the safety of the public or the safety of our staff.”

Chief Fire Officer Damian Smith said more than half the necessary savings could be made from back office and support functions and by slowing down the rate at which money is put aside to repay loans for capital projects such as buildings.

But the authority needs to save a further £437,000 from the operational side of the organisation while still ensuring that there are always enough firefighters either on duty or on call. Its Executive Committee has suggested the following options:

• Rearranging teams of firefighters into five watches rather than the current four. This will not alter the number of fire appliances available to the community, but could lead to savings of up to £500,000 a year from 2010/11.
  
  
• Reducing from five to four the number of firefighters crewing some of its fire engines. This could lead to savings of up to £455,000 in 2009/10.
  
  
• Increasing the number of part-time firefighters and decreasing the number of full-time firefighters at one of its fire stations – Great Holm in Milton Keynes. This could lead to savings of up to £200,000 in 2009/10.

Mr Smith said: “In spite of the difficult financial situation, we are committed to achieving more and enhancing our safety work. We are hoping that as many people as possible will let us know what they think of the proposals.”

A 12-week consultation period starts today and ends on 21 January 2009. Feedback from the public, local organisations, staff and trade unions will be used to help finalise the plan before it is submitted to Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire Authority on 13 February 2009.

Click here for a PDF of the draft document

Click here to go to the online feedback form