Council approve plans to modernise fire service
Plans to modernise Warwickshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service have been approved at a full Council meeting yesterday (20 July 2010).
Councillors were presented with three options by the Chief Fire Officer to debate at Cabinet and Full Council, which included plans to upgrade Alcester fire station to a whole-time station, increase firefighter training and substantially increase Home Fire Safety Checks.
During the meeting, Councillors had a full and rigorous debate and concluded that option B would provide the best foundation for an improved fire and rescue service for Warwickshire. This means that:
* Bidford Fire Station remains in place.
* At Alcester Fire Station is upgraded to a whole-time station
* Three Fire Stations (Brinklow, Studley and Warwick) are decommissioned back into the Council’s Asset Management portfolio.
* Bedworth Fire Station becomes a retained station with a whole-time crew manning a specialist small fires unit.
Portfolio Holder for Community Protection, Councillor Richard Hobbs said: “This is a real step forward for Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service. Councillors have had a difficult decision to make and I am pleased that they have chosen a route to modernisation that will deliver the improvements we need for the safety of both our firefighters and the residents of Warwickshire.
“I would like to assure residents that we have listened to their concerns and as a result the improvement plan we approved has been modified to ensure that we are delivering improved value for money by using our resources in the best way possible.
“The next steps now will be to look at how we implement the changes approved by full Council and the timeframes for that. I would like to make it clear to residents that changes will not be made overnight and that a programme of work will now be undertaken to look at how we implement the Improvement Plan to improve the safety for residents and our firefighters as a whole.
“Improvements from the plan include increasing home fire safety checks from 6,500 to 30,000, investing in our equipment and training, placing a second boat unit in the south of the county, investing in a small fires unit and reducing our attendance to the staggering amount of automatic fire alarm call outs we attend.
"All of the improvements will and have saved lives nationally, which is why we need to ensure that we have a fire service which is fit for purpose, now and in the future.”