Your views will be heard!
Warwickshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service have proposed some major changes to the way in which it uses it resources and over a 12-week consultation period residents have put forward their views on the changes proposed.
Since the launch of the consultation on the 14 September 2009, over 2,500 residents have written, e-mailed, attended meetings and called us with their views. Those views have been logged and will be put forward as part of the consultation process.
Although the public consultation meetings have now ended, the consultation will continue for another two weeks, finishing on the 8 December 2009. The outcomes of the consultation process will then be analysed and reported to Cabinet on 28 January 2010, prior to any final decisions being made by the full Council on 9 February 2010. Both are public meetings.
Chief Fire Officer, Graeme Smith said:
“We are pleased that so many people have responded to the consultation process. As part of the responses we have had some interesting proposals, which I would like to investigate further as part of the outcomes of that process.
“Whilst I know the Improvement Plan has been a highly emotive one, I am sure that residents understand the service needs to modernise and invest in making communities safer. Changes to the way we deliver community fire safety, having specialist units to deal with small fires and road traffic collisions, increased training for our firefighters and investing in a new boat unit will help us to achieve that as will changing the bases in which we deploy our resources from.
“I would like to remind residents that there is still two weeks left for them to have their say and this can be done by writing to us, e-mailing us or filling in the consultation document on-line.”
Portfolio Holder for Community Protection, Richard Hobbs said:
“The consultation has been a lengthy process. 20 public meetings have been held across the County in order to ensure that we have given residents every opportunity to have their say. The strength of feelings from the meetings, for the dedication of our firefighters is something I feel the service can be very proud of.
“Any views sent directly to me from residents, have been fed into the consultation process and will be reviewed after the closing date of the 8 December.”
Residents can still log onto http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fireandrescue to have their say. Alternatively you can e-mail fireandrescue@warwickshire.gov.uk with any questions you may have.