Meeting Details

• The Chairman welcomed Nathan Travis to his first Authority meeting, welcomed Councillor Adrian Hardman back onto the Authority and thanked outgoing Member Councillor Phillip Gretton.
• A minute's silence was held for Councillor Maurice Broomfield who had passed away recently.
• Congratulations were given to Councillor Liz Eyre who was recently awarded the British Empire medal.
• Members were informed of recent meetings the Chairman and the Chief Fire Officer had attended regarding potential collaborations with:
  • Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service;
  • Worcestershire County Council; and
  • The Police and Crime Commissioner.
• Finally, Members were reminded of the Service Exercise on Saturday 1 October at the Fire Service College and urged Members to attend.

Following the Appointments Committee on 26 May 2016 and subsequent interview of Nathan Travis on 7 June 2016, it was agreed unanimously by the Appointments Committee that the Authority appoints Nathan Travis to the post of Chief Fire Officer/Chief Executive on the current terms and conditions.

RESOLVED that Nathan Travis be appointed to the post of Chief Fire Officer/Chief Executive on the current terms and conditions.

[Councillor Kenyon left the meeting at 11.10am and returned at 11.12am]

A report was presented on the allocation of Committee seats to political groups and which sought to make appointments to those Committees.

Resolved that:

i) the number of seats on each Committee and the allocation of those seats to political groups be as follows:

ii) the following Members be appointed as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the following Committees:

a. Appointments Committee

    Chairman: Mr D W Prodger

b. Audit and Standards Committee

    Chairman: Ms L R Duffy

    Vice-Chairman: Mr G C Yarranton

c. Policy and Resources Committee

    Chairman: Mr C B Taylor

    Vice-Chairman: Mr R C Adams

iii) in accordance with the wishes of Group Leaders, membership of Committees be as set out in Appendix 1;

iv) non-aligned Members Mr S C Cross and Mr J L V Kenyon be appointed to the Audit and Standards Committee and to the Policy and Resources Committee, respectively;

v) Ms P Agar and Mrs F M Oborski be appointed to the Equality and Diversity Advisory Group;

vi) Mr G C Yarranton be appointed to the Health and Safety Committee, and

vii) Mrs A T Hingley be appointed as the Chairman to the Young Firefighters' Association Executive Committee.

A report was presented to consider appointments to the Local Government Association and to the Place Partnership Ltd. Shareholder Group.

RESOLVED that:

i) the previous practice for representation and voting on the Local Government Association be continued as follows:

a. that the Authority’s four representatives on the Local Government Association should be the Leaders of each of the current four political groups or their nominees;

b. that the 13 Service votes on the Local Government Association Assembly be allocated between its representatives on a politically proportionate basis as follows:

c. the corporate vote on the Local Government Association Assembly be exercised by the Chairman or his nominee;

ii) the place and vote on the Local Government Association Fire Commission be exercised by the Chairman of the Authority; and

iii) the Chairman be appointed as the Member representative on the Place Partnership Ltd. Shareholder Group.

A report was presented with the financial results for 2015/16. Members were reminded that although this subject is normally a matter for the Policy and Resources Committee, this year the Committee did not meet between the end of the financial year and the date by which the Statement of Accounts had to be submitted.

RESOLVED that:

ii) £0.094m be transferred to the Equipment Reserve;

iii) £0.042m be transferred to a Fleet Funding Reserve;

iv) £0.130m be transferred to an Insurance Reserve;

v) £1.163m being the balance of the underspend be transferred to the Budget Reduction Reserve; and

vi) the re-phasing and presentation of capital budgets to 2015/16 as detailed in Appendix 4 of the report be approved.

A report was presented reviewing the outcome of investigations into potential locations for the Wyre Forest Emergency Services Hub Station.

During discussions a site plan was shown to Members detailing the exact location for Silverwoods Park and concern over traffic congestion was raised. Members agreed unanimously for the consultation to proceed on Monday 4 July 2016.

RESOLVED that:
 
i) at this stage, Silverwoods Park is the preferred site for the proposed Wyre Forest Emergency Services Hub Station, but Stourpoint 5 is also considered to be a satisfactory location;

ii) further detailed negotiations and site investigations continue in respect of both sites;

iii) a further phase of public consultation be undertaken to determine public support for the proposed Hub Station if it is on one or other of the two sites identified above; and

iv) following the consultation, the Authority receive a report from ORS setting out the public feedback in respect of the preferred sites, prior to the Authority making a final decision at their meeting on 11 October 2016 on whether or not to proceed with the Hub Station project.

The annual performance for 2015-16 was presented using the set of Performance Indicators agreed by the Senior Management Board.

RESOLVED that the Authority notes the following headlines taken from Appendix 1 relating to performance in Quarters 1 to 4, 2015-16:

i) A total of 6,459 incidents were attended in Q1-4, an overall increase of 5.7% (347 incidents) in comparison to the same Four Quarters of 2014-15. Despite this, the overall incident trend over the last 4 years indicated that incident numbers have remained at a consistent level.

ii) The majority of the increase over Q1-4 is accounted for by rises in the numbers of Fires and Special Service incidents:

a. Fires: an increase of 10.8% (187 incidents) is largely related to a peak in grassland, woodland and crop fires during the drier summer months of May to August 2015;

b. Special Services: an increase of 10.0% (135 incidents) can be largely accounted for by an increase in the numbers of road traffic collisions (RTCs) and weather-related incidents in the wake of several severe storms, which impacted on the two counties in mid- November 2015 to March 2016;

iii) Incident numbers in each of the three main categories (Fires, Special Services and False Alarms) have remained consistent over the last 3 to 4 years;

iv) Overall Staff Sickness levels have remained within tolerance levels for Quarters 1 to 4;

v) The Service attended 60.2% of Building Fires within 10 minutes in Q1-4 2015-16 compared with 61.1% in the same period in 2014-15. The average time for the first fire appliance attendance at all building fires is just above the 10 minutes standard (10:09); and 

vi) Retained availability has improved slightly in Q1-4 rising to an overall 94.3% compared to 93.7% in the same period in 2014-15.

The Fire Authority's Annual Report 2016/17 was presented for adoption and approval for publication.

RESOLVED that the Fire Authority Annual Report 2016/17 be adopted and approved for publication subject to any final minor changes as agreed by the Chief Fire Officer in consultation with the Chairman.

A report was presented from the Task and Finish Group with their findings and recommendations following scrutiny of the Vehicle Fleet Capital Programme.

RESOLVED that:

i)   a revised and updated Fleet Strategy be provided to the Policy and Resources Committee in September 2016 for approval;

ii)  further detail on the fleet provision be included in the yearly budget report to the Policy and Resources Committee;

iii.) the Fleet Strategy should in future be reviewed at least every five years and in the interim, a yearly update on the Strategy consisting of a two year forecast, should be provided to Members as part of the budget setting process.

iv) the revised Fleet Strategy should reflect the distinction between operational decisions over the specification and choice of vehicles/equipment, which were matters for officers, and broader strategic issues affecting the Authority’s finances or the Service to the public, which would require Member involvement.

The Chief Fire Officer informed the Authority of recent key developments and activities, which included:

• Introduction to the Service;
• Installation of High Sheriffs in Herefordshire and Worcestershire;
• Health and Safety Peer Review of East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service;
• Service Exercise 2016;
• National Breathing Apparatus Challenge Service Run Off; and
• Young Firefighters Passout.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

The Chairman of the Committee reported the proceedings of the Audit and Standards Committee meeting held on 13 April 2016.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Audit and Standards Committee meeting held on 13 April 2016 be received and noted.

The Chairman of the Committee reported the proceedings of the Policy and Resources Committee meeting held on 21 March 2016.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Policy and Resources Committee meeting held on 21 March 2016 be received and noted.