To put questions, if any, to the designated Members on the discharge of functions of the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority, Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield Combined Authority and South Yorkshire Pensions Authority, in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11(5).
Minutes:
(1) Councillor Carter was unable to attend today’s meeting so his question would be responded to in writing by the Designated Spokesperson for South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
(2) Councillor R. Elliott referred earlier this year to Labour amending the UKIP motion – Reinstate the second appliance in Rotherham adding “when finances become available“.
Recent published accounts showed a further £2.1m would be made available to the general fund and Councillor Elliott asked when would the second appliance be reinstated ensuring the ongoing safety of residents throughout the night?
Councillor Atkin explained South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue recognised that a responsible and transparent course of action must be adopted in order to generate the £1.4m savings per annum that the use of CPC had delivered; this must also be in the context of providing the best possible service to the people of South Yorkshire within the budget that was available.
The Chief Fire Officer and his senior leadership team had therefore recommended a number of options for the South Yorkshire Fire Authority to consider as a response to the recent legal judgement.
After consideration, the Fire Authority duly directed the Chief Fire Officer to prepare a revised Integrated Management Plan. The planning process requires that a service periodically reviews resource disposition in light of the changing environment in which it functioned, and the production of an IRMP was regulated via the Home Office Fire and Rescue National Framework 2018. Once the Fire Authority had approved the new draft IRMP, the Service would engage in wide ranging public consultation, including with the local Authorities, on the proposals and the impact that they were likely to have across the whole of South Yorkshire, no other guarantee could be provided at this time.
In a supplementary question Councillor Elliott made reference to the fire brigade being recently required to support the Police during the night in a search and rescue operation due to reduced manpower leaving no fire coverage whatsoever. The fire appliance was moved from Dearne to Rotherham leaving no cover and he questioned was it going to take a major incident like Grenfell and urged for the second appliance to be reinstated immediately.
Councillor Elliott heard the argument that an additional £1.4 million was needed to cover the removal of CPC but this was deemed illegal. This left £750,000 which would more than cover the second appliance. This was on top of the additional £20 million which was ear marked for capital projects, He, therefore, asked would Councillor Atkin please make ensure current fire authority accounts were made publically available and subject to a full scrutiny review showing that there was sufficient funds available to support the funding of the second appliance and that Labour honoured their commitment to do so.
Councillor Atkin explained the accounts of the Fire Authority were publically available, open to scrutiny and were externally audited.
In terms of CPC the Fire Authority had been told it was illegal so this could not be done. However, to reinstate to a normal crewing system at all stations would cost £1.4 million with an extra sixty firefighters. This, combined with the extra pension costs, would mean that the reserves would soon be depleted.