Warwickshire County Council's approval of new fire and rescue plans could be challenged

The service’s resourcing to risk proposals, which were significantly altered following a public consultation that attracted more than 1,200 responses, were this week given the green light by the county’s cabinet – the panel of Conservative councillors in charge of major service areas.

However, Councillor John Holland (Warwick West) said the Labour group would reserve its right to call in the decision amid arguments that it should go out to the public for a second time.

Call-in is a formal process which allows councillors to challenge decisions made by the leader, cabinet, portfolio holders or officers before they are implemented but it is a soft power.

It triggers the relevant panel – in this case the resources fire and rescue overview and scrutiny committee – to look at it and decide whether to refer the matter back to the decision maker or take no further action.

The plans have already been through the scrutiny process and even if it does come back, the cabinet is not bound by any recommendations made.

What has happened and why

Warwickshire Fire and Rescue’s resourcing to risk plans initially proposed the scrapping of on-call firefighter teams due to plummeting availability.

That was changed in Polesworth, Henley, Wellesbourne, Southam and Bidford, areas that were deemed to have stable enough availability to continue with on-call at night.

The refreshed plans also came with more than £500,000 per year of extra funding for the next three years, supporting the recruitment of 30 extra wholetime firefighters, to ensure that 14 fire appliances are available across the county in the day and 13 at night, an increase on current provision.

Resilience teams – a new name for what were termed surge teams in the previous plan – will provide back-up when required on top of the five saved on-call teams.

It is anticipated the overall average response time from the first fire appliance will improve by almost a minute across the county, and while the average gets worse for some rural areas of North Warwickshire and the Stratford district, the amendments are set to shave off more than a minute and a half compared with what was initially proposed for Stratford.

Nuneaton, Bedworth, Rugby, Warwick and Leamington are expected to benefit from improved response times.

Remaining concerns about the Warwick district

Councillor Sarah Boad (Lib Dem, Leamington North) hailed chief fire officer Ben Brook and portfolio holder for fire and rescue and community safety Councillor Andy Crump (Con, Southam, Stockton & Napton) for taking the consultation exercise “extremely seriously” and making changes.

While she acknowledged improvements in the south on the back of that, she argued parts of the south-east of the county had been “left more vulnerable” through anticipated response times of 20 minutes or more.

Her attention also turned to response times for second appliances having “gone down in three parts of the county”.

She said: “We have more tower blocks in Leamington than anywhere else in the county and at the moment, five appliances need to go. If it is at night, those appliances have to come a long distance to get to Leamington and that is a concern.

“I am very concerned to see there is not 24-hour cover at Kenilworth. Even though it is an on-call station currently, I think losing that on-call at night is very detrimental to Leamington. We rely on Kenilworth being that third appliance and I would ask for that to be looked at again.”

Cllr Holland then entered the debate having earlier heard representations relating to Nuneaton and the district of Stratford-on-Avon, including from new Stratford MP Manuela Perteghella (Lib Dem).

“We are concerned that so many people still have concerns about this,” said Cllr Holland.

“A lot of the people with the most concern have recently been elected and are therefore probably most in tune with their residents.

“We would like to reserve our right to call this in because we need to reconcile the views of the people who have spoken and others.

"We have four new members of parliament in Warwickshire, obviously they should have a say, and we need to feed our views back to them about the funding we want for our fire and rescue service.”

Concerns about the Stratford district

Bidford-on-Avon Parish Council’s Penny Barry was involved from the outset in saving the on-call option for her area and this week told the county’s cabinet – the Conservative panel of councillors in charge of major service areas and making this decision – that concerns remain.

“This relies on enough full-time staff signing up to the resilience model on top of their 40-hour per week shifts,” she said.

“Is there any evidence that the model has been used successfully elsewhere? Does the cabinet fully understand what resilience is and the time lapse of availability?

“The resilience fire stations in the south of the county leaves the area dangerously short in an emergency. Reducing the available appliances from eight to three during the night endangers residents, employees and people travelling through the area. Does the cabinet feel this is acceptable and provides enough emergency cover?”

She also threw down the gauntlet to council leader Councillor Izzi Seccombe OBE (Con, Stour & the Vale) on daytime response times.

“Despite concerns raised over attendance times in the consultation, this is now going to be 20 minutes-plus in the south and south-east of the county, assuming that the closest fire engine is not deployed elsewhere. Does Councillor Seccombe think this is acceptable for the residents she is elected to represent?”

New Stratford MP Manuela Perteghella (Lib Dem) made the case for more a new consultation on “significantly different” plans.

“It is better to take a little longer so these views are heard by cabinet before you take the final decision,” she said.

She welcomed the saved night cover in Bidford and the 24/7 provision in Henley-in-Arden but was concerned that Alcester’s risk of flooding and the volume of HGVs using the A46 and A435 had not been adequately considered, adding that Shipston-on-Stour and surrounding villages had been left “extremely vulnerable”.

The response

Cllr Crump said in-depth work had been done to consider the needs of the whole county and the extra funding made available to strike the right balance. He also highlighted the difference between perception and reality over on-call availability.

“Cover for the south is already being provided by other parts of the county," he said.

"At the moment we can only guarantee 11 pumps during the day, under these proposals we will guarantee 14 which gives the chief fire officer operational independence to allocate them to whatever part of the county he sees fit depending on the risk.”

Leader Councillor Izzi Seccombe OBE (Con, Stour & the Vale) added: “There is a danger that we as a council are losing the point that this is a significant investment in our fire service.

“I think every one of us, whatever (political) persuasion, knows that local government finances are not in a strong place so for us to have been able to achieve this and to meet better outcomes for our residents has addressed the point of this which is resourcing to risk.

“It is never easy in a council area like Warwickshire where you have quite an urban north and sparsely populated south to address the demand while providing the cover.

“I have to commend the chief fire officer and the team that has worked with you, and those who have been part of the consultation and contributed some very useful feedback which has helped to shape this and come forward with a plan that invests money in Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service.

“There has been a recognition at all times that we have a fantastic service. Our firefighters serve at their own considerable risk, these are people who run to danger not away from it and they do that to protect us.

“The important thing for us is knowing that the inspectorate has required this. We know we have a problem with the (on-call) numbers, I would dearly love to wave a magic wand and say we would be able to find more people but that has been tried for five years, at least, and not just in Warwickshire.

“We have to address that need. My residents – and I was asked the question – are sat with the belief that there is a wonderful shiny service that will be there for them and it isn’t always the case.”