Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

at 11/01/2007 12:00

The draft objectives for Cornwall County Fire Brigade’s Service Plan were approved for consultation by a Panel of County Councillors today.

Members of the Integrated Risk Management and Service Improvement Planning Single Issue Panel, set up by the County Council to oversee the production of the Brigade’s Service Plan, approved a 12 week consultation process, involving members of staff, key stakeholders and members of the public. This will begin on Monday 15 January.

Fire and Rescue Authorities have been required by the Government to produce an annual Service Plan (Integrated Risk Management Plan) since 2003. The aim of the plan is to ensure the service uses its resources effectively to deal with risk to life.

This year Cornwall County Fire Brigade is proposing 41 objectives - 33 relating to legislation or the Fire Service National Framework and 8 initiated by Cornwall County Council. At today’s meeting all 41 proposed objectives were approved for public consultation. .

“Some of these proposals have the potential to significantly affect how the Brigade delivers the service it provides” explained County Councillor Ken Yeo (Lib Dem), the County Councillor’s Executive Member for Public Protection. “These include changing the emergency cover provision at Falmouth and Camborne Fire Stations; the establishment of a Regional Fire Control and the sustainability and development of our retained staff”.
“Other proposals relate to reviewing the hours of work of firefighters and how the Council continues to fund the Co-Responder Scheme”

Mr Yeo explained that the Service Plan takes into account the forecast budget for the Brigade. “In 2005 / 2006 budget problems required the Brigade to freeze the recruitment of whole time firefighters. The forecast budget for 2007 / 08 and beyond will not enable us to lift this freeze. As a result the Brigade has been forced to put forward some difficult recommendations to ensure it can stay within the funding it has been allocated”.

Chief Fire Officer Matt Littmoden added: “Over the last few years Cornwall County Fire Brigade has consulted on its proposed objectives before drafting the Service Plan. This gives us an opportunity to ask our staff, the community and our stakeholders for their comments and views on the proposals”

“This year we are proposing to carry out 41 objectives, 11 of which have the potential to affect how we deliver our Service. Before we make any changes we need to know the views of the public we serve”.

The formal consultation process will begin on Monday 15 January, and will end on Tuesday, April 10th. Information on the proposals is available on the Cornwall Fire Brigade website www.cornwall.gov.uk/fire , by telephoning O1872 322773 ; emailing enquiries@fire.cornwall.gov.uk or writing to Freepost SWB 999, Service Plan Consultation, The Performance Department, Cornwall County Fire Brigade Headquarters, Old County Hall, Truro, TR1 3ZZ
The Single Issue Panel will consider the results of the consultation at a meeting at the end of April when it will make recommendations to the Community Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee for its meeting on 31 May. The Executive will then consider the recommendations from the Scrutiny Committee when it meets on 6 June, with the final decision being made by the County Council on 19 June 2007.

Following this Cornwall County Fire Brigade’s Service Plan 2007 / 2008 will be published.