Cabinet Member's shameful denials

Shocking display by Councillor Duncan Crow at County Council meeting

Last week, he was rightly challenged by Labour and Liberal Democrat County Councillors on the lowering of response standards. Their questions were both perceptive and accurate, but his responses showed that he did not like the Council's deception being exposed.

Councillor Crow has become far too accustomed to his claims being blindly accepted by his Conservative colleagues. With those claims robustly challenged by Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors he was obviously flustered. He first claimed the lowering of standards was rationalisation, and then switched to claiming it was a simplification. Apparently he thinks people in West Sussex were too dim to understand the previous standards. 

Angrily, in response to a supplementary question from County Councillor Dr James Walsh, the Cabinet Member said, "shame you don't get it." 

The reality is that Dr Walsh does 'get it' and Councillor Crow doesn't like it 

The Real Simplification

The changes were prompted by a realisation that the response standard set by the County Council was showing up too many below standard response times. The cause of those failures was principally the council's removal of a quarter of frontline fire engines and their failure to ensure that there were always crews available for the remainder. A responsible solution would have been to take action to improve response times. 

The County Council's solution:

Change the response standard to a lower one that hides those failures

Where is the evidence?

The Cabinet Member claimed that people responded favourably to the consultation on response standards, yet the results of the consultation have not been published. Perhaps they did, as the consultation did not make clear that the changes would allow longer response times and would therefore be a lower standard. With so much spin from the Cabinet Member, people will be forgiven for doubting the accuracy of his claim.

The consultation response should be published

False claim that a fire engine will arrive within 16 minutes

When Councillor Caroline Baxter asked a question about response times, Councillor Crow falsely claimed that the new standard meant that wherever you are in the County, you could "expect a fire engine to come to you in an emergency within 16 minutes.” 

That is untrue, the new standard still allows fire engines to take more then 16 minutes to arrive at 10% of emergencies! The performance will still be deemed 'green' (satisfactory). Latest figures show that in the year to date the first fire engine took more than 16 minutes to arrive at:

9.54% of emergencies

In a full year that would be over 800 occasions when people in trouble had to wait over 16 minutes for any help to arrive

Firefighters always do their utmost to get to emergencies quickly, but their ability to do so is limited by the inadequate resources provided by the County Council.

Members of Parliament call for improvements

West Sussex MPs have also been highlighting the County Council's inadequate fire & rescue service provision. 

Unlike Conservative MPs, who have routinely accepted whatever the Conservative controlled County Council tells them, two Liberal Democrat MPs have taken the time to visit West Sussex fire stations and listen to firefighter concerns. 

John Milne, MP for Horsham, spent time at Horsham fire station and afterwards highlighted a number of issues, including the County Council's failure to recruit enough retained firefighters. 

Duncan Crow again disgraced himself by attacking Chichester's MP, Jess Brown-Fuller, after her visit to Chichester fire station. He attacked her in the press and then used a contrived question, from one of his Conservative colleagues, to try and discredit the MP's comments at the County Council meeting.

The MP correctly said that fire engines and equipment were out of date and in need of replacement. Duncan Crow falsely claimed that her statements were ‘not accurate’, ‘poorly informed’ and ‘baseless’. If he was more in touch with his responsibilities, then he would know that it is his claims that are ‘not accurate’, ‘poorly informed’ and ‘baseless’.

The County Council used to ensure that frontline fire engines were not more than 12 years old and special vehicles, dependent on type, were replaced between 15 and 20 years old. 

So what would the MP have seen at Chichester Fire Station (if they weren't away for repair!):

Fire engine 1 - 11 years old

Fire engine 2 - 16 years old

Special vehicle 1 - 16 years old

Special vehicle 2 - 25 years old

Special vehicle 3 - 30 years old 

Councillor Crow only has to read some of the County Council's own reports to know that Jess Brown-Fuller MP is correct.

Those reports state that "a well-managed replacement programme is essential as older vehicles require higher maintenance costs and present higher incidents of defects and failure rates." Yet, it is clear from a report this year that the replacement programme has not been managed well for the past seven years:

"The previous commitment to a rolling programme of three new appliance replacements per year stalled. There has therefore been a lag in replacements since 2018."

That has resulted in over 20 year old fire engines still being in frontline service. During the Cabinet Member's waffling reply he said, "we would never ever provide unsafe equipment for our firefighters." Yet in County Council reports supporting the lapsed 12 year replacement programme, it clearly said that it was necessary to reduce the risk of defects and failures. 

So, by neglecting the replacement programme, firefighters and the public have been exposed to an increased risk from fire engine and equipment defects and failures. 

If a fire engine pump fails, whilst supplying water to firefighters inside a building, their lives are in immediate danger. 

If a fire engine won't start when an emergency is received, valuable time is lost and lives and property are in greater danger.

Councillor Crow has been expecting firefighters to continue using less reliable and less safe equipment