Minutes:
1) A member of the public asked “How many times have the specific individual aspects of the removal of the second fire appliance in Rotherham been scrutinised at the Fire Authority and where can I find the minutes of these meetings?”
The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Management Board indicated that he was unable to provide an answer to that, but would ask the Joint Authorities Governance Unit, which administered the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority to provide information for a response.
Response from South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority below:-
Changes to the staffing of the second fire appliance at Rotherham fire station, alongside other related issues, have been considered on at least six occasions by members of the Fire Authority. Minutes of Fire Authority meetings are publicly available at www.southyorks.gov.uk.
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Link to Report & Minutes
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Resolution
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RESOLVED – That Members approved the consultation schedule at Appendix B to the report, to begin external public consultation on the development of the IRMP and Service Plan for 2013-15. |
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RESOLVED – That Members:-
i) Scrutinised the IRMP consultation work that took place earlier in 2013 and provided the Authority with assurance about the process which had been followed. ii) Considered proposals for a second phase of consultation later this year. iii) Considered learning points for future consultations. |
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RESOLVED – That Members:-
a) Noted the key proposals outlined in paragraph 17 of the report, which had been developed after listening to feedback from staff and the public:- · To remove the Service’s Response time target, but to publish its performance in attending dwelling fires within 6 minutes, to provide a clear measure of the extent to which Government cuts are affecting the Service. · To implement a risk-based approach to community safety and fire prevention work, targeted at geographical areas and individual households at highest risk of fire. · To make no further reductions to the number of fire stations or rescue pumps during the lifetime of these plans (up to 2017). · To phase out the Combined Aerial Rescue Pumps at the earliest opportunity, to be replaced by 4 rescue pumps, and 2 new dedicated Aerial Appliances, one crewed on a wholetime 24x7 basis, and the other on a retained basis · To minimise impact on the public, and ensure no further fire station closures before 2017, the second fire appliances at the four two-pump stations, Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley and the new Parkway station, will be crewed on a retained basis overnight, but will continue to be crewed on a whole-time basis during the day. · To crew the new Birley station (which replaces the ageing Mosborough Station) on a retained basis, due to the lack of a collective agreement in respect of the Authority’s previous decision to implement Close Proximity Crewing (a 24x7 staffing model). · Acknowledgement that riding five on a rescue pump would be the stated intent; however, four would be the accepted absolute minimum.
b) Agreed to re-open public consultation for an additional six week period to 14th October 2013. c) Agreed to make a final decision at the November 2013 meeting of the Fire and Rescue Authority. d) Requested copies of Mosaic ward maps which identified high, medium, low and very low levels of risk in South Yorkshire, together with today’s PowerPoint slides and the ‘Super Output Area’ information. |
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RESOLVED – That Members approved the Strategic and Operational Plans 2013-17. N.B. Councillors Satur and Richards abstained from the decision.
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(Please see full minutes – reference made to 2nd pump at Rotherham)
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RESOLVED – That Members:- i) Approved the contents of the draft IRMP 2017-20. ii) Approved a six week consultation period on the proposals in the draft plan.
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(Please see full minutes – reference made to 2nd pump at Rotherham)
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RESOLVED – That Members:- i) Approved the contents of the IRMP 2017-20, and welcomed the commitment of the Service to explore opportunities around the proposal to retain the second appliance at Sheffield Fire Station. i) Be provided with a point by point explanation correcting the factually inaccurate points raised within Councillor Cowles’ letter. |
2) A member of the public referred to a question at last full Council regarding underspends from 2006 to 2018 at the Fire Authority and queried whether the information had been supplied yet and when it would be made public?
The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Management Board indicated that he was unable to provide an answer to that, but would ask the Joint Authorities Governance Unit, which administered the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority to provide information for a response.
Response from South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority below:-
Underspend figures are available for the period 2010/11 to 2017/18 and are provided below for reference. These have previously been reported to the Fire Authority, which is a public meeting.
2010/11 £4.1m
2011/12 £3.3m
2012/13 £3.4m
2013/14 £0.4m
2014/15 £2.9m
2015/16 £0.2m
2016/17 £0.6m
2017/18 £0.7m (estimated)
Underspends against our operating budget, and the associated growth in reserves, are mainly a consequence of the retirement rate of operational staff outpacing the rate at which the service’s funding has reduced, and our having no confidence to recruit new fire fighters (which are now a 40 year commitment) due to uncertainty about the extent and duration of future cuts. A significant proportion of these reserves will now be spent over the next few years on necessary capital projects - including investments in equipment, vehicles and buildings for firefighters. This will leave a much smaller amount of other earmarked and general reserves (expected to be around £5 million), to provide for other initiatives and unexpected future costs, such as insurance and operational contingency.
3) A member of the public put the following question “Reference was also made at the last full Council in respect of a bleeper system to call in reserve help for Rotherham Fire Station – can you describe how this process works and has it been used yet?”
The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Management Board indicated that he was unable to provide an answer to that, but would ask the Joint Authorities Governance Unit, which administered the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority to provide information for a response.
Response from South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority below:-
Currently, when the first fire engine at Rotherham is mobilised to an incident at night time (between the hours of 7pm and 8am), the retained fire engine from Birley Moor fire station is brought across to provide cover in Rotherham area. This arrangement will remain in place until the end of the month when the ‘Night Time Cover’ model will be up and running. A similar model has been in place at Barnsley fire station for a number of months. Under this system:
· Surplus Retained Duty System (RDS) Firefighters are identified on the availability system from Dearne and Birley Moor fire stations
· When sufficient numbers allow for a full crew (1 x Officer In Charge, 1 x Driver, 2 x Firefighters minimum) they are deemed available for use
· If required (due to ongoing incidents, large scale incident in other parts of the county, etc.) Control then activate the pagers of the available crews
· The available crews respond to Rotherham fire station and staff the second appliance for as long as is required