As the wildfire threat increases, Cabinet Member admits Fire Service less effective

West Sussex is inadequately resourced for wildfires

The Chief Fire Officer has rightly warned of the increased risk of wildfires, but the County Council has left the service inadequately prepared and our countryside at risk.

Nearly all of the fire service's specialist off road vehicles, which are essential for tackling wildfires, are around 25 years old. Reliability is an increasing issue and, as they are built on a chassis that is no longer produced, spare parts are difficult to obtain. 

Wildfires often require large numbers of firefighters over long periods of time. The work is physically demanding and exhausting in hot weather, so fresh crews need to be brought in regularly. In addition, more firefighters need to be kept available to deal with other fires and emergencies.  

West Sussex only just managed to cope with the many wildfires during the drought of 1976. Yet at that time they had 46 frontline fire engines and crewing levels would see them providing a total of between 230 and 260 firefighters. 

Today there are just 35 fire engines, but crewing cuts would see them only providing 140 firefighters. However, as they are rarely all have crews, there can be as few as a dozen fire engines available, which would provide as few as 48 firefighters!

48 firefighters cannot do the work that used to require over 200 firefighters

West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service less effective because of County Council cuts

Cabinet Member Duncan Crow, who is responsible for fire & rescue, recently wrote to County Councillors hoping to justify inaccurate comments he made at a County Council meeting. Incredibly, he blames the deteriorating performance on having fewer fire stations and fire engines. All the result of cuts made by the Conservative controlled County Council since 2010.

The council was warned that closing four fire stations and removing eleven frontline fire engines would seriously damage the service's effectiveness, but they blundered on. Latest figures for the most recent five years show that there has been a 37% increase in neighbouring fire & rescue services having to attend incidents in West Sussex. In the same period, the assistance given to them by West Sussex has fallen by 33%.

37% increase in other fire & rescue services attending West Sussex incidents 

= the County Council failing to properly protect residents

Sadly, Councillor Crow can't even get his facts right on this point. He says the criticism used data from 2004 when it very clearly stated that it was comparing the latest figures with 2018-19 figures. He cites three fire station closures when there were actually four, and he refers to 'retained appliances' no longer operating, when the eleven fire engines they cut included two that were crewed by wholetime firefighters. 

Councillor Crow continues to incorrectly claim that response times are improving. Home Office figures very clearly show that the trend is that they are getting worse.

Average response times to Primary Fires – Home Office data table FIRE1001

Councillor Crow claims that the retained crewing model dates from after the Second World War, but by then it had been in continuous operation for over 100 years. He blames the drop in retained firefighter availability on work and lifestyle changes, whilst ignoring the adverse impact that County Council decisions have had on recruitment and retention.

Councillor Crow cites changes following the pandemic, yet that has seen more people working from home, which should improve availability. Instead of making excuses, it is high time that Councillor Crow persuaded his Conservative colleagues to do more to improve availability. 

The County Council still refuses to adopt a policy of supporting staff to become retained firefighters by giving them time for training and response to emergencies. There are well over 5,000 people employed in other council departments, yet the council refuses to support them to become retained firefighters. 

Instead of leading by example, the County Council shamefully leaves it to other employers to make staff available to be retained firefighters.