FIRE CHIEFS have assured no fire stations will be shut in Warwickshire amid a resources shake-up.
Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service has begun a consultation on proposed changes to the way it manages its resources.
Residents, businesses, community groups and public sector partners can all give their views on the Resourcing to Risk delivery model, drawn up to ensure the right resource is in the right place at the right time to keep people in Warwickshire safe,
The aim is for WFRS to optimise the distribution of its fire appliances, firefighters and supporting resources as the service faces some challenges.
Chief fire officer Ben Brook said: “Currently our resource doesn’t match with activity levels. We have more fire appliances available at night when activity levels are lowest, and fewer fire appliances available between 8am and 10pm, which is when 89 per cent of life and property incidents occur.
“One of our challenges is that despite the commitment and hard work of on-call firefighters who serve their communities while also having other commitments such as full-time jobs, our on-call availability has fallen from 90 per cent to 35 per cent over the last five years.
“As a result, the 12 fire appliances which are crewed by on-call firefighters are, on average, only available one-third of the time. This is a similar picture nationwide and we expect this trend to continue in the long-term.”
Warwickshire County Council’s fire and rescue spokesperson Coun Andy Crump added: “I want to stress that this proposal isn’t about cutting costs and it’s not about closing fire stations. Instead, it’s about making sure that we’ve got our resource in the right place to make the best difference when an emergency happens.
“This consultation will stay open until March next year, giving everyone an opportunity to look at our proposal in detail and to tell us what they think. No decisions will be made until the consultation is over.”
The public consultation is available at https://ask.warwickshire.gov.uk/insights-service/wfrs-r2r/
The survey will remain open until March 10 2024.
A series of consultation events will also be held in each of Warwickshire’s five district and boroughs in January and February.
