For many years this organisation has moved onwards and upwards in spite of, rather than because of, the financial resources at its disposal. We have had to lean heavily on the commitment, the experience and the flexibility of our staff in order to achieve the levels of progress expected of us by the people we answer to – most notably the public and the government.

Since Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire & Rescue Authority was formed in 1997, it has been the poor relation to most other Fire & Rescue Authorities in England in terms of the amount of money it has been able to allocate to its services per head of population.

The tide is now slowly starting to turn. This year, thanks largely to the support of our local MPs, we were allowed to increase our budget by 4.2 per cent to help fund nearly 50 new posts. These will help us strengthen vital areas and live up to our pledge that everything we do to prevent fires and other accidents from happening in the first place, to protect you from their consequences and to respond to your calls for help, is “Making You Safer”.

The organisation has just completed its first full year with a new Chief Fire Officer, a new Chairman and a new senior management team in place. It was also our first full year of working to a new law outlining a statutory framework for the Fire & Rescue Service of the 21st century, replacing a much-amended Act dating back to the 1940s.

Notable achievements included the setting up of a Search and Rescue (SAR) facility which complements our other front-line services and provides increased resilience in the event of serious incidents such as major structural collapse, severe flooding and even terrorist activity. Our SAR team and firefighters made national news in April 2006 as a result of the rescues and searches they carried out at a major incident in Milton Keynes.

We were also able to open brand new fire stations for Aylesbury and Marlow, and a brand new headquarters, at a fraction of the cost normally associated with this scale of development.

Our Operational Assurance Report – the document which measures how well our front-line emergency services perform, and how effective we are at protecting people from fires and preventing emergency incidents from happening in the first place – received the seal of approval from Her Majesty’s Fire Service Inspectorate.

Indeed, HMFSI confirmed that not only are your chances of being injured in a fire in Buckinghamshire or Milton Keynes lower than the national average, but they are also steadily reducing.

We were even able to draw encouragement from an assessment of our corporate performance by the government, in spite of the fact that we failed to meet all of its requirements. It confirmed, among other things, that we need more money if the modernisation and development of our services is to continue at an appropriate pace.

For a fuller picture of our work, we would encourage you to read this document in conjunction with our Integrated Risk Management Plan Action Plan, our Comprehensive Performance Assessment and our Operational Assurance Report, which you can see at, or download from, www.bucksfire.gov.uk

Thank you for taking the time to read this report. The document shows how we are performing, and sets out our targets for improvement. Key to everything we do is improving safety – for today, for tomorrow and for all our futures.

Damian M Smith
Chief Fire Officer and Chief Executive
Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service

Cllr David Rowlands
Chairman
Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire & Rescue Authority

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