(i)

nationally the Fire and Rescue Service faced a Government Grant reduction of 25 per cent over the next four years;

(ii)

this reduction was back-loaded to a six per cent reduction in year one with the remaining 19 per cent being split between years two, three and four;

(iii)

the DSFRA was planning on meeting a budget shortfall of between £8 million and £10 million by 2014 and would be achieving this through –

• targeted fire prevention advice
• reduced full fire safety checks on business and commercial buildings
• recovering costs from repeated false alarm call-outs
• exploring new procurement initiatives and purchasing fit-for-purpose vehicles

(iv)

in addition to the proposals outlined above, consideration was also being given to the introduction of a revised staffing and cover arrangements known as ‘Day Crewed Plus’ which would reduce costs  with no reduction in the emergency cover provided due to staff working different hours.

(v)

between 8-10 vehicles a year were renewed under the current fleet replacement programme at a cost of £200k per fully fitted appliance.  Savings of between £14k-16k per vehicle could be achieved through bulk purchasing and smaller vehicles where appropriate and options for further savings by joint purchasing with other fire authorities were being investigated through the national procurement strategy;

(vi)

Plymouth was very well served by five fire stations compared to other areas of Devon and Somerset and had seven front-line pump appliances;

(vii)

community engagement featured high on the DSFRA’s agenda and a number of successful initiatives were quoted, including –

·              Annual Open Days at all five of the City’s Fire Stations

·              ‘Learn to Live’ event at Plymouth Pavilions aimed at those learning to drive/new drivers

·              Phoenix Programme for young people

·              Visits to the City’s Primary Schools to raise awareness of Fire and Road Safety

(viii)

the DSFRA was committed to partnership working and, in addition to being represented on Plymouth’s Local Strategic Partnership, officers worked closely with the Police on road safety matters and with council officers in terms of integrated planning;

(ix)

each death, whether as a result of fire or road traffic accident, cost £1.7m.  Investment in prevention therefore made sense both in terms of saving lives as well as financially;

(x)

whilst the Fire Service would wish to see the installation of sprinkler systems in all new buildings made compulsory, the current Government had stated that further regulation in this area was not necessary;

(xi)

the cost of the purpose-built regional call centre in Taunton had been met by central government who would now be looking to recoup that cost by either selling or leasing the building to someone else;

(xii)

the ‘Day Crewed Plus’ model would allow the service to operate with far fewer firefighters but to pay them considerably more and a number of fire fighters in Plymouth had already expressed an interest.  However, the arrangement would be voluntary and only introduced at stations where crews had opted in;

(xiii)

there were currently four training sites across the region and, given the impending cuts, it was timely to undertake a review of each of these facilities.

(1)

reference to Local Area Agreements should be removed from the Draft Corporate Plan as these had been abolished;

(2)

Councils should give consideration to appointments to the Fire Authority as an outside body being for a period of four years;

(3)

consideration be given by the DSFRA to including Independent Members on the Fire Authority’s Board;

(4)

further information in relation to targets, whether performance indicators were being met and how the service was performing compared to other fire authorities be made available to the Board.