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Meeting Details

Full Authority
16 Dec 2021 - 10:30 to 11:59
  • Documents
  • Attendance
  • Visitors
  • Declarations of Interests

Documents

Agenda

Committee Councilllors
Agenda Items
1 Apologies for Absence
To receive any apologies for absence.
335

Apologies were received from Cllr B Brookes, Cllr K Guthrie, Cllr N McVey, Cllr R Morris and Cllr D Toynbee.

2 Declarations of Interest (if any)
This item allows the Chairman to invite any Councillor to declare an interest in any of the items on this Agenda.
336
Cllr Phillips declared that he was Vice Chair of the Firefighters Scheme Advisory Board (England and Wales), Chair of the Local Government Pension Scheme Advisory Board (England and Wales), a member of the NJC for Fire Service (Grey Book and Green Book) and represented the Fire Authority as a director of Place Partnership Ltd.
3 Chairman’s Announcements
To update Members on recent activities.
337

The Chairman announced to Members that he had recently attended the Medal and Award ceremonies at the Town Hall in Hereford and the Guildhall in Worcester.

The Chairman invited the Chief Fire Officer to provide an update for Members on recent key events. 

The Chief Fire Officer reminded Members that following the meeting there was a seminar on the attendance measures and then discussed the recent large fire at a Carpet Warehouse on the Hoo Farm industrial estate in Kidderminster. He confirmed that it was not suspicious and although was not a major incident this time, it was still the same scale of fire as the previous one in the area. The Chief Fire Officer praised the efforts of the crews who did a superb job of controlling the fire as there was a significant high risk of other businesses being lost when the wind changed direction.  It took just under 2 weeks to put the fire out completely.

Members passed their congratulations to all the crews involved and were pleased to note that the drones proved to be an asset to look at neighbouring buildings. On behalf of the residents of Kidderminster and Wyre Forest, the crews were thanked for their incredible effort on the Park Street fire and this recent fire. 

4 Public Participation
To allow a Member of the public to present a petition, ask a question or make a statement relating to any topic concerning the duties and powers of the Authority.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Head of Legal Services in writing or by email indicating both the nature and content of their proposed participation to be received no later than 2 clear working days before the meeting (in this case 13 December 2021). Further details about public participation are available on the website. Enquiries can also be made through the telephone numbers/email listed below.
338
There was no public participation.
To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 13 October 2021.
339
RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 13 October 2021 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To inform Members of the current position on the revenue and capital budget for 2021/22.

340

The Treasurer presented Members with the current position on the revenue and capital budget for 2021/22. This report was due to be presented at the recent Policy and Resources Committee, however the meeting had been cancelled and it was agreed to provide the information to the full Authority.

Members noted the new Revised Core Revenue budget of £35.356m which took into account the temporary increase in Fire Control staffing in preparation for the replacement Fire Control project. and the net Revenue overspend of £0.026m.

With regard to the Capital budget, Members noted that the budget available to be spent at the start of 2012/22 was £5.094m of which £2.412m had occurred.

Members were pleased to note that there had been no additional long term borrowing.

RESOLVED that the Authority:

i)  approved the revised Core Revenue Budget at £35.356m; and

ii) noted the net Revenue overspend of £0.026m.

To inform Members of the current position about information available to support the 2022/23 budget and MTFP, and to seek delegated authority to enter a future Business Rates Pool.

341

The Treasurer informed Members of the current position about information available to support the 2022/23 budget and MTFP, and also sought delegated authority to enter a future Business Rates Pool.

Members were made aware that indications of council tax base changes and collection fund figures for Council Tax and Business rates were still awaited, it was hoped that there would have been an update for today's meeting. The Business rate yield information was not usually expected until mid January.

Further updates would be brought to the Policy and Resources Committee as information on the grant settlement emerged.

Members were asked to give delegated authority to enter into future Business Rates pools if appropriate, to avoid the use of the Urgent Decisions process which had been used in previous years.

RESOLVED that the Authority:

i)   noted that the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) and its impact on the emerging MTFP was still awaited;

ii)  noted that the Policy and Resources Committee would receive a full report as more information was available;

iii) noted the decision taken under the urgent business procedure for the Authority to participate in the business rates pooling for 2021/22; and

iv) give delegated authority to the Treasurer to determine whether to participate in business rate pooling arrangements for future years.

This report is to update Members on the progress in implementing the Prevention Action Plan following the cause of concern issued by HMICFRS after the 2021 inspection, letter dated 29 June 2021.

342

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer updated Members on the progress in implementing the Prevention Action Plan following the Cause of Concern issued by HMICFRS after the 2021 inspection, letter dated 29 June 2021.

Members were reminded of the email they received yesterday relating to the new HMICFRS review. This report was for Members to note the progress that had been made up to October 2021 and that the overall action plan was on target to be completed by July 2022.

Members also noted that the full HMICFRS inspection report would be published in December 2021, a full review of feedback and recommendations would be prioritised, with action plans produced as appropriate, which would be reported at the Fire Authority Meeting in February 2022.

[Cllr Hart left the meeting at 11.26am and returned at 11.28am.

RESOLVED that the Authority notes progress on actions to deliver the HMICFRS Cause of Concern Action Plan.

This report summarises the Service’s performance for Quarter 2 2021-22
343

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented Members with a summary of the Service's performance for Quarter 2 2021-22.

There was a query with regard to Building fires as it was felt the information provided did not adequately reflect the scale of the Fire and Rescue Service's response to fires. It was suggested to add the scale of the fire and the number of  appliances attended. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer suggested additional text could be added to further reports and the Chief Fire Officer would add further comment at meetings.

There was a query with regard to diversity in the workforce. The Chief Fire Officer reported that there was a new training programme to be issued throughout the workforce and assured Members that the Service was fully committed to increase diversity. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer confirmed to Members that they would recommend to the Audit and Standards Committee that there be two EDI Champions, rather than the current one, to assist with the ongoing work.

RESOLVED that Members note the Q2 2021-22 performance headlines set out in Section 4 of the report, with further details available in Appendix 1.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 30 September 2021.
344

The Chairman of the Committee presented the minutes of the Audit and Standards Committee meeting held on 30 September 2021.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Audit and Standards Committee meeting held on 30 September 2021 be received and noted.

To receive the minutes of the meetings held on 16 September 2021.
345

The Chairman of the Committee presented the minutes of the Policy and Resources Committee meeting held on 16 September 2021.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Policy and Resources Committee meeting held on 16 September be received and noted.

Declarations of Interests

Member NameItem Ref.DetailsNature of DeclarationAction
No declarations of interest have been entered for this meeting.

Visitors

Visitor Information is not yet available for this meeting