Councillor David Rowlands, Chairman of Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire Authority.
23 July 2008
Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service is making significant progress towards its “Making You Safer” promise to the community, its annual report shows.
The organisation’s programme of carrying out safety checks in people’s homes, and fitting free smoke alarms where appropriate, helped reduce the total number of accidental dwelling fires by nearly 20 per cent from 472 to 381.
It completed 3,896 of these checks, of which 1,673 were in the homes of people over the age of 65.
Deliberate fires were down from 2,062 to 1,844, and the number of hoax 999 calls fell from 245 to 207.
Although the number of people injured in accidental house fires fell slightly from 28 to 27, two people died – a figure the organisation is determined to bring down to zero.
The 32-page report summarises the service’s performance in the year ended 31 March 2008 and looks at how it plans to improve it in the future.
Councillor David Rowlands, chairman of Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire Authority, said: “Although we can’t afford to drop our guard or be complacent, the report shows just how much work is being put into saving lives and making this a safer place to live for the population of more than 700,000 that we serve.
“Through our work on prevention and protection, as well as our response to emergency calls, we are determined to save more lives and reduce the risk of people being injured.”
The report also contains a summary of the Audit Commission’s annual assessment of the organisation, which shows it to be “improving well” for the second year running.
It noted that the authority was effectively targeting community safety initiatives at areas of most need, providing good value for money and performing particularly well in relation to planning, developing and maintaining operational competence.
Cllr Rowlands said: “We are very pleased with this, bearing in mind the cost of our services per head of population is below the national average. Last year, for example, it was £38.34 per person, compared with a national average the previous year of £41.”
He added: “We are committed to constant and continuous improvement, and will pay special attention in areas where we are not achieving its targets, including supporting local authority and emergency service partners in reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured in road traffic collisions.”
A PDF of the full report can be downloaded here.