Poor performance prompts more spin and cover up

With elections next May, it seems that West Sussex County Council's leadership is desperate to cover up how their cuts have damaged the fire & rescue service's performance. 

Bogus grounds used to refuse Freedom of Information request

A recent request for copies of the service's 'Failure to meet response standard reports', covering the period from 1 November 2023 to 31 October 2024, has been refused. This is particularly suspicious, as the information was provided when the same reports were requested in 2018 and 2021. One can only assume that performance is now much worse.

The first bogus reason for refusal was that disclosure "would be likely to endanger the physical or mental health of any individual or the safety of any individual". With imagination worthy of a conspiracy theorist, they suggest that a person with malicious intent could use the data to delay the response to future incidents.

So, what is this information that was previously not valuable to a person with malicious intent, but now suddenly is? 

The information simply shows that at some past incidents the service failed to meet their response standard for reasons such as long travel distance, slow turnout, nearest station off the run, appliance did not book in, difficulty in locating the incident, nearest appliance attending another incident, and heavy traffic. 

All reasons that would be obvious to anyone with an ounce of common sense.

Bizarre personal data refusal, when no personal data was requested

Presumably, in case the first reason does not pass the Information Commissioner's tests, they throw in the personal data exemption as a second reason for refusal. Yet no personal data was requested, and the information held, and previously provided, does not include personal data. 

The Council's leadership and the Chief Fire Officer regularly claim to be open and transparent, yet this demonstrates, once again, that they are not.

Complacent and ineffective Fire & Rescue Service Scrutiny Committee meeting 

This committee met at the beginning of the month and, sadly, scrutiny was inadequate. The Performance Report for quarter 2 of 2024/25 revealed further deterioration in the service's response to critical fires, but committee members voiced no concerns.

Critical Fires – First Appliance Attendance

The response target for critical fires across most of the County is a lengthy 14 minutes, yet this is failed on nearly 10% of occasions. The report said that 'performance often dips in quarter two', but no one asked the Chief Fire Officer why it was nearly 8% worse than the same quarter last year (it was 94.7% in quarter two last year, but was down to 86.9% this year).

Inadequate crewing on retained frontline fire engines

Councillor complacency on this crisis is astonishing. Not only was this the worst ever quarter two performance, it was the worst quarterly performance on record. With up to three quarters of the County's fire engines dependent on retained firefighters this continuing deterioration is putting lives and property at risk. Yet, instead of demanding action, Councillors just accept Cabinet Member Duncan Crow's lame excuses and move on to the next item. 

Source: WSCC reports 

(Note - the target was cut between 2013/14 and 2019/20 without consultation or explanation)

Councillors rightly praise staff in the fire & rescue service for their efforts, but fail to examine how decisions by the Council have contributed to this worrying decline. Not only has the County Council cut the number of retained firefighters they employ, their policies are having a negative effect on the recruitment and retention of retained firefighters.

The County Council could set an example to other employers by having a policy to positively support all County Council employees who wish to become retained firefighters, and a policy to release them from their primary employment for training and response to emergencies. Yet the Council has no such policy and selfishly expects other employers and the self employed to step up and do what they will not do.

Why are establishment and strength figures not published?

It is interesting that the report refers to the Retained Duty System being 14% below the ‘authorised establishment.’ Establishment figures are no longer published, so Councillors cannot properly scrutinise the service without updates on changes to the establishment and actual strength figures. 

Source: Home Office statistics

The retained firefighter strength in 2024 is two thirds lower than the Council's approved establishment in 2004! 

Lean or inadequately resourced?

During the meeting, Chief Fire Officer Sabrina Cohen-Hatton referred to the service being a lean one. An understatement if ever there was one. The County Council has cut the service to the bone, which leaves it struggling to cope with routine demand. It is no longer able to provide an effective service when there are more demanding incidents, or when several incidents occur at the same time. 

Instead of recognising that deteriorating performance is the result of Council cuts, Duncan Crow was more interested in boasting that the County Council's spend on the fire & rescue service is £6 less per head of population than the average in England. That missing £5 million has much to do with why there are not enough firefighters in West Sussex and, as a consequence, why response times have got worse.

The County Council is failing to properly protect residents

Why the Conservatives cannot be trusted with our Fire & Rescue Service

Key changes between 1974 and 2024

West Sussex was enlarged in 1974 and for the next 35 years the Conservative’s management of the fire & rescue service could be considered adequate. However, during the last 14 years this has deteriorated dramatically and worryingly it is continuing to deteriorate.

Misleading information and false claims

With County Council elections next year it is important that misleading information and false claims from the Council's Conservative leadership are exposed. At a recent meeting, Cabinet Member Duncan Crow claimed that they had increased the number of firefighters. Home Office figures show that is not true, they have been reduced significantly.

Duncan Crow is also fond of claiming that fire deaths have fallen as a result of prevention work. That is untrue. The number of fire deaths fluctuates year by year, so more than one year has to be examined to get a true indication of changes.

Unfortunately for Councillor Crow, the most recent five year average shows a worrying increase in fire deaths compared to the five year average before the County Council began their cuts to frontline fire crews.

The Conservatives cannot be trusted to run our Fire & Rescue Service

Self deception or deceiving the public?

The response time deception

This week I watched Conservative Cabinet Members congratulating their colleague Duncan Crow on this annual report. Unfortunately, they glossed over matters that should be of real concern and misrepresented others.

Councillor Steve Waight made one pertinent comment:

"The public tell me the most important thing is when you phone them, they come."

However, he then spoilt it by claiming the targets that were being met were tough ones. 

The target for the first fire engine to arrive at critical fires in Hampshire & Isle of Wight within 8 minutes may be considered a tough one. 

The target of 10 minutes in Surrey may be considered a reasonable one. 

Yet, the Cabinet's target for two thirds of West Sussex of 14 minutes, and 12 minutes for the other third, are most definitely not tough targets. 

Especially so as the target allows them to take longer at 11% of critical fires.

The improved performance deception

I was astonished to hear Chief Fire Officer Sabrina Cohen-Hatton say that she had compared performance with several years ago and was 'absolutely delighted with the way the service has responded.'

I don't know what performance she compared, but it surely can't be to do with the public's primary expectation of a quick and effective response.

The County Council has reduced standard crewing on fire engines by 20%, which makes every crew less effective.

They have closed four fire stations and removed a quarter of frontline fire engines, which inevitably increases response times and reduces the service's effectiveness.

There are now 28% fewer firefighters in West Sussex, and the minimum number on duty in Crawley Borough has been cut by 60%.

Despite County Council claims that cuts would reduce fire deaths by diverting resources to prevention, they have increased.

Source: Home Office Fire & Rescue Service data

The shocking failure to ensure fire engines are crewed

During the day, two thirds of frontline fire engines depend on retained (on call) firefighters. At night, three quarters of frontline fire engines depend on them. Yet the latest figures show that they are unavailable more often than they are available.

Not only is this a serious County Council failure, they secretly dropped the availability target for fire engines crewed by retained firefighters from 88% to 75%.

Source - West Sussex County Council reports

Conservative failure, nationally and locally

The reduction in the service's effectiveness is the result of Conservative policies locally and nationally. With the general election this week there is a chance for people to show that they have had enough, but in West Sussex voters will need to vote tactically to defeat the Tories.

Unfortunately, the recommendations on tactical voting sites are very misleading, because they fail to take account of local differences. They rely on a small sample of national polling, no pollsters survey more than 0.1% of voters, and then try to model voting intentions at constituency level without examining local variations. Some do also look at local voting at previous general elections, but with the boundaries being changed, in some cases significantly, they are still unreliable.

I am not a member of any political party, but have followed politics locally for over 50 years. I have looked at the support shown for different political parties in recent local elections, and the performance of current candidates. My conclusion is that if you want to help remove Conservative MPs from West Sussex, then vote for the following candidates:

Definitely best tactical voting option

Chichester - Liberal Democrat

Crawley - Labour

East Worthing and Shoreham - Labour

Horsham - Liberal Democrat

Mid Sussex - Liberal Democrat

West Worthing - Labour

Less certain best tactical voting option

Arundel and South Downs - Green Party

Bognor Regis and Littlehampton - Labour

East Grinstead and Uckfield - Liberal Democrat

The most important thing is that you actually vote

People want change, but it won't happen unless people get out and vote. There are many excuses used by those who do not vote, but the reality is that they simply help those they complain about stay in power. 

The Reform UK Party deception

One final thought, please don't fall for the lies of the undemocratic and disruptive Reform Party. Not everyone who has fallen under their spell is a racist, xenophobe, Russian apologist, conspiracy theorist, or violent, but too many of their members and several candidates are. 

Not only is their 'contract' mostly unaffordable and unworkable, some of their candidates have some really odd views. Just one example, the Chichester Reform candidate told voters that people who do not run a business do not know what people need, and that policemen who are less than 6 feet tall are no good!