Click here for a PDF of the draft Integrated Risk Management Plan 2009-12, and here for the news release issued at the start of the consultation period.

22 January 2009

The 12-week consultation period on Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire Authority’s blueprint for the next three years ended yesterday – and the first of a series of decisions based on the feedback will be made next week.

The authority’s Executive Committee will look at reports summarising the views of the public, staff, stakeholders and the Fire Brigades Union at its meeting on 30 January, and consider a number of recommendations by Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service’s senior officers.

It will then make its own recommendations to the full meeting of the authority, which takes place on 13 February.

The draft document – called the IRMP (Integrated Risk Management Plan) 2009-12 – will be updated to take account of feedback and will be published on 31 March.

Damian Smith, Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service’s Chief Fire Officer, said: “We used a number of different methods to seek people’s views during the consultation period, including public and staff focus groups, meetings with partner organisations and an online form.

“As a result nearly 250 people and various organisations took the opportunity to help us assess the key areas of the plan.

“I would like to thank everyone who took the time and trouble to make it such a valuable and worthwhile exercise – there have been many positive comments about the work we are proposing to do.”

Mr Smith said three key areas of concern had been highlighted by consultees. These were the proposals to:

• Rearrange teams of firefighters into five watches rather than the current four. This would 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.
  
  
• Reduce from five to four the number of firefighters crewing fire engines at Aylesbury, Bletchley, Broughton, Great Holm and High Wycombe Fire Stations. This could lead to savings of up to £455,000 in 2009/10.
  
  
• Alter the balance between the number of part-time and full-time firefighters at Great Holm Fire Station in Milton Keynes. This could lead to savings of up to £200,000 in 2009/10.

Mr Smith added: “Over the next few weeks, members of Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire Authority will be asked to make a series of important decisions.

“Happily, fire station closures and redundances have never been on the agenda – but the decisions are challenging and many of the issues are emotive nonetheless.

“The reason for this is simple – we’re performing a particularly tricky balancing act. The IRMP outlines our plans to develop our community safety initiatives, and to continue to provide high-quality fire cover across Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes, against a backdrop of a tightening financial environment.

“As things stand, we need to identify savings totalling around £1.4 million over the next three years if we are to live within our means.

“If we did not have such a severe financial predicament, we would have been able to limit the impact these changes would have on the organisation.”

Mr Smith said that the Government had limited the increase in its grant funding to the authority to one per cent in 2008/09 and 0.5 per cent in 2009/10 and 2010/11. He added: “The authority has joined with other fire authorities which had a similar level of settlement to lobby the Government, but to date with no success.”

The Executive Committee meeting will be held at Wycombe District Council’s offices in Queen Victoria Road, High Wycombe, starting at 11am on Friday 30 January. The IRMP debate will include a presentation by the Fire Brigades Union of its official response to the consultation.