Agenda item

Petition Opposing Fire Service Cuts

Report of the Policy and Improvement Officer

Minutes:

7.1

The Committee received a report regarding a petition that had been debated at a meeting of Full Council on 12th June, 2019 - “Opposing Fire Service Cuts”.  Following the debate, one action agreed by Council was to refer the matters raised to this Committee for its consideration. 

 

 

7.2

Neil Carbutt, who had presented the petition to Council, was in attendance and asked that the Scrutiny Committee consider the petition as set out in the report.  He stated that there were different pressures around the Service and gave a brief history about the Close Proximity Crewing (CPC) duty system which the Fire Authority had tried to introduce in 2012 to deal with severe budget cuts imposed by the Government, but this system was deemed unlawful and industrial relations between the Fire Brigade Union (FBU) and the Authority were poor.

 

 

7.3

Matt Nicholls, Chair of the Fire Brigade Union, representing 500 firefighters in South Yorkshire, stated that riding with four crew members instead of five was less safe, the fifth person ensured the safety of the other crew members.  He referred to the Grenfell disaster and said that initially 25 engines had attended but this soon increased to 40.  He added that he and his members understood the pension deficit and shortfall to the budget, but felt that the reserves the Authority holds should be used to buy time.

 

 

7.4

Members made various comments and asked a number of questions, to which responses were provided by Neil Carbutt and Matt Nicholls, as follows:-

 

 

 

·                     The published national response to attending a house fire is nine firefighters.  Its not about the number of engines attending a fire but the personnel there.

 

 

 

·                     The proposed introduction of CPC did not look at the issue of fatigue, whereby firefighters were on shift for 11 hours without sufficient breaks and any subsequent job losses.

 

 

 

·                     Rotherham is a growing and thriving community as was Doncaster and extra resources will be needed to cover this.

 

 

 

·                     It was felt that there should be a “top down” review of personnel in order to achieve savings.

 

 

7.5

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

 

 

 

(a)       thanks Neil Carbutt and Matt Nicholls for attending the meeting;

 

 

 

(b)       authorises the Policy and Improvement Officer, in consultation with the Chair and Deputy Chair, to develop and submit a response on behalf of the Committee, to the consultation on the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s draft Integrated Risk Management Plan; and

 

 

 

(c)        encourages Cabinet to also submit a response to the consultation on the Plan.

 

Supporting documents: