Very good to see some County Councillors willing to fight for West Sussex residents and firefighters. Their press release says it all:
Labour
challenges unfair funding of West Sussex Fire and Rescue and expresses concerns
for its future, as Tory county council warns it intends to cut the service even
further
West
Sussex Labour County Councillors are challenging the position that West Sussex Fire
and Rescue Service is a victim of unfair funding from the Tory Government,
receiving considerably less than other neighbouring local councils and fire
authorities, and being the hardest cut fire authority in England, according to
recent figures published by the FBU. The
Labour Group is calling on the Tory-led council to at least maintain its
current funding and also for the council to challenge the Government on the
unequal funding West Sussex is receiving, and is set to get worse.
At the last
meeting of the Environment Communities and Fire Select Committee in September, when
discussing the implementation of the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service
(WSFRS) Integrated Risk Management Plan, the Chief Fire Officer warned members
that the financial strains meant middle management in WSFRS would be having to
do this on top of their other roles, and that he would not rule out three
member crews in future for fire engines arriving to tackle fires, having
decided to move the standard crewing number in West Sussex from five to four.
The Chief
Fire Officer, Gavin Watts, also indicated that the Cabinet Member for Safer,
Stronger Communities Debbie Kennard (Con, Shoreham North) would be coming
forward with proposals for further cuts to the Service in November, which she subsequently
confirmed at the meeting, although as of the date the motion was submitted,
this was still not indicated on the council’s Forward Plan of key decisions.
Mr Watts
said: “The savings question, I believe we are coming back here in
November with thoughts around the
savings potential within the Fire and Rescue Service, contributing to the broader
whole.”
Labour county
councillor Michael Jones (Southgate
and Gossops Green) has put forward the motion on behalf of the West Sussex
Labour Group, which is printed on the agenda papers for the next Full Council, published
today.
- Figures from the FBU indicate that there is an
existing gap in the funding provided per person from the Government
towards WSFRS, in comparison to the per person funding in all of those
Fire and Rescue Services immediately surrounding it. This gap has grown considerably over the
past few years.
- Not only are many of the surrounding fire authorities
receiving much higher sums to protect their communities, but with further
Government cuts in 2019/20, the gap is set to become far worse, and even
more unfair, for West Sussex. The
local government Settlement Funding Assessment for fire authorities shows
West Sussex having the largest
funding cut in England, in the three years between 2016/17 and
2019/20, of 45%. The English
average is a 15% cut. By the end of
2019/2020, WSFRS will be receiving less than half the funding of East
Sussex Fire Authority, with £6.34 and £12.85 per person respectively.
- WSFRS has already suffered from very deep cuts made to
it in recent years by the Tory-controlled council, with £2.5 million and
£1.6 million in 2012 and 2014 respectively, making it according to FBU
figures the second worst hit fire authority in the proportion of its
overall number of firefighters lost in the whole of the UK, with a
reduction of 37% of its firefighters, during that time.
- If further savings proposals were to come forward,
Labour is arguing that WSFRS is already stretched and doing its best in
practice to keep enough engines available.
However, between 7am and 7pm there are rarely more than 15 crews available
out of the 35 possible, sometimes as few as 10, and that firefighters are
having to work hard to keep such numbers and maintain the resilience of
the Service.
- Moreover, cuts are apparently being proposed before
the forthcoming HMI inspection of WSFRS, which is not even due to begin
until November, and aside from some preliminary feedback expected during
the following month, is not due to formally publish its conclusions until
its final report, expected in May 2019.
The West
Sussex Labour Group is therefore calling on the Tory leadership of the council
to protect WSFRS from further cuts for the reasons above, and arguing it is
impossible to predict what issues or extra demands the HMI inspection may
reveal which will require action, and to maintain the amount of funding WSRFS
receives.
The motion
therefore calls on the council to:
-
abandon
any plans to bring forward further proposals for cuts to WSFRS, as the service
has taken as many cuts as it can bear without further compromising public and
firefighter safety, and further threatening the availability of crews and
appliances at the county’s fire stations.
-
requests
the Leader of the council Louise Goldsmith and the Cabinet Member for Safer,
Stronger Communities Debbie Kennard to jointly write to the relevant Government
Minister on behalf of the council, challenging the inequalities in funding for
WSFRS and calling for it to be raised so that it is in line with the funding
that other neighbouring fire authorities receive, per person.
Speaking
about the reasons behind the motion, Cllr Jones said:
"Our
firefighters in West Sussex risk their lives on a regular basis, and they
deserve more than just being offered up for more savings. This is already the second worst hit Fire
Service in the country. Too much has
already gone. The facts are staring the
Tory leadership in the face, but they seem to ignore them. It’s not just a question of letting our firefighters
down if there are more cuts, although that is bad enough, if they are coming
out and not able to tackle fires as effectively as they otherwise could, then public
safety is at stake.”
Labour
Group Leader Sue Mullins (Northgate
and West Green) agreed with Cllr Jones, adding her own concerns about the
future of WSFRS:
"There’s
a grimly familiar theme emerging here, where when we look at the finer details,
things aren’t as satisfactory at the county council as they are painted to be,
and once again the people of West Sussex are the ones losing out as this
Government fails to put their interests first.
“Unfortunately they have a
Tory leadership at the county council either too embarrassed, or worried about
party reputation, to speak out when these things happen, and Tory MPs who are
strangely silent when it comes to their constituents being short-changed.”
