Response standard failures increase
Paul Marshall, Conservative Leader of West Sussex County Council, says he feels "significant improvements" have been made to the fire & rescue service. Yet the latest figures, released following a freedom of information request, show his claim to be false.
The number of occasions our inadequately resourced fire & rescue service has failed to meet the very generous response times, set by the Conservative run County Council, has nearly doubled in five years. This is not every delayed response either, the figures just cover the first two fire engines arriving at the most serious fires, and the first fire engine arriving at serious non-fire emergencies such as road traffic collisions.
The response said that figures for 2020-21 were unavailable as they "are
currently working through the raw data".
Fire deaths on the rise
This latest evidence that the service provided to the public is not improving comes after a recent increase in fire deaths. In the last ten years the Conservatives have cut frontline response resources by a quarter. They claimed it was justified as they would save more lives with prevention work. Final figures for 2020-21 have yet to be confirmed, but four fire deaths have so far been reported to County Councillors. Sadly there are unconfirmed reports that the final figure for 2020-21 may be six.
The chart shows confirmed figures
The Conservatives have failed to properly protect West Sussex residents, yet instead of apologising for their failures they continue to mislead voters by claiming things are improving. Staff in the fire & rescue service have been working their socks off to try and improve performance, but the continued lack of resources makes it an impossible task.
There has been no indication that the Conservatives will stop their arrogant misrepresentation, improve performance, or even ensure proper scrutiny and accountability.
It was only last year that Conservative Cabinet Member Duncan Crow's answer to poor call handling times in the Surrey Fire Control, which handles West Sussex calls, was to suggest excluding the worst times from the statistics.
Conservative Steve Waight, who is supposed to ensure that the performance of the fire & rescue service is properly scrutinised, repeatedly tries to stop discussion of serious concerns by claiming they are 'operational matters'. These 'operational matters' are fundamental to the service's performance and it is essential that they are discussed.
Incidents are also increasing
Remember when the Conservatives told you that the number of emergencies attended was falling and would continue to fall?
The Conservatives cannot be trusted
with our Fire & Rescue Service
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