Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

N/A at 15/04/2002 09:00

Cornwall County Council has today agreed a package of measures aimed at improving the funding of the Fire Service and to achieve greater levels of safety for people in Cornwall. This “recovery programme” will allow essential training to be carried out for all the Brigade’s 600 firefighters. An increase of 24 personnel will also ensure that a sufficient number of firefighters attends each operational incident. This will allow for more effective firefighting and rescue operations and for higher levels of safety for personnel.

Chief Fire Officer Mick Howell said: “This is marvellous news for the Brigade. It allows us to start a recovery plan and to provide greatly improved services.
Our main priority is to ensure, so far as we are able, that people living in, working in and visiting Cornwall are safe. Today’s decision by the County Council enables us to take forward a programme, which will increase the number of firefighters, improve their training and therefore our response. We can also make sure that all staff are available to provide effective advice on the subject of fire safety in the home.”

The decision of the County Council follows detailed scrutiny of funding arrangements at national and at local level over the last four years. At national level the former Minister responsible for the Fire Service recently commented that “the Fire Service was suffering from benign neglect.” The decision of the County Council today is also based upon the findings reported by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Fire Services when he inspected the Brigade last October.

Chief Fire Officer, Mick Howell also said “a very detailed review and inspection carried out by Members of the County Council and Her Majesty’s Inspector has been necessary and has supported my advice that additional funds must be made available and urgently. With so many pressures across all departments of the County Council for improved levels of service and additional responsibilities to deal with, all of us concerned with providing an effective Fire Service appreciate the priority that our particular need has been given.”

Councillor Jill Ferrett, elected Member of the County Council responsible for Community and Regulatory Services said “having an inefficient, ineffective or unsafe Fire Service is not something any of us would want to even contemplate. I believe it was essential that the County Council should take this action to support additional funding for the Fire Service to avoid that situation arising”

She added: “I will continue, with the Chief Fire Officer, to press national Government for additional funding for Cornwall and indeed for other rural fire brigades with similar difficulties. In the meantime, we can now begin to rebuild
the Brigade to ensure that it satisfies all of the demands which the public rightly expect of us.”

The Chief Fire Officer also referred to the role of the Leader of the County Council, Members of the Executive and the Scrutiny Committees, past and present, who have spent so much time and energy in helping to achieve this decision. He said: “above all Councillor Ferrett’s interest, understanding and grasp of the real operational issues which we needed to address, has been critical. Because of her support and resolve and the backing of the County Council we have now averted what would have been a serious decline in service delivery.”