Meeting Details

Cllr R Phillips OBE declared that he was Vice Chair of the Firefighters Pension Scheme Advisory Board (England and Wales), Chair of the Local Government Pension Scheme Advisory Board (England and Wales), and Chair of the NJC for Fire Service (Grey Book).

Cllr D Birch declared that he was a volunteer for the Fire Cadets.

Cllr J Shaw declared that her husband was employed by the Fire Service.

The Chief Fire Officer presented Members the opportunity to review and scrutinise the updated Environmental Sustainability Plan 2026-30.

Members were pleased to note that the Service had made substantial progress in delivering the actions set out in the Environmental Sustainability Plan 2021-25. The new Plan marked the next phase of the journey which moved the Service from establishing good practice to embedding the principles of reducing emissions and waste into normal working.

Members had concern with the amount of water consumed when training. Members were assured that water was used as sparingly as possible, where appropriate grey water systems were evaluated across the estate.

The new Plan links directly to the Fire Authority approved Asset Management Strategy 2026-30, which ensures buildings, ICT, fleet and equipment design, procurement and replacement cycles met organisational priorities and objectives while supporting the Community Risk Management Plan 2025-30, and the core strategies; Prevention, Protection and Response.

It was agreed that annual reviews would be presented to the Fire Authority.

RESOLVED that having scrutinised the Environmental Sustainability Plan 2026-30 it be accepted and approved. In particular it be noted that:

i)   There is full alignment with the overarching Asset Management Strategy 2026-30;

ii)  There is a direct link to the Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) 2025-30;

iii) There are monitoring and review arrangements in place to report progress; and

iv)  This plan is constrained by available resources and in some cases limitations in technical advances.

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer - Director of Protection presented the Property update for scrutiny.

Members were reminded of previous reports that referenced the UK construction tender price index and the associated inflationary pressures being seen across the building sector. Members noted that the Treasurer was building in contingency funds in anticipation of the current build programme, additionally some contingency had been built into the recent reorganisation of Authority Reserves.

Members noted the updates to:

Hereford - the steel structure was nearing completion, the project programme was presently on track with a practical completion of early 2027.

North Herefordshire Strategic Training Facility - project is now unaffordable after reviewing specifications and costs, revised proposals would be reported to Members when available.

Relocation of Training Centre to Wyre Forest Fire Station - staff had now moved to Wyre Forest and plans were being developed at the Droitwich site to enable the vacant office space to be potentially utilised by a third party.

Leintwardine Fire Station - extension and refurbishment works commenced before Christmas 2025 and are making good progress.

Operational Logistics (Malvern) - refurbishment works had been completed and now provided staff with a clean and modern working environment.

Former Kidderminster Fire Station - a new property consultancy, Harris Lamb, are now marketing the site and Members would be updated with any prospective offers.

Members would continue to be updated on progress as the property projects moved forward.

RESOLVED that having scrutinised the details of the Property update, the paper be noted.

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer - Director of Protection updated Members on the work completed following feedback received during the Internal Communications Review in 2022.

Members were pleased to note that in response to recommendations made in the Internal Communications Review in 2022, the Service had made a significant investment in Service Communications. Investment included the appointment of additional specialist staff, bespoke training, digital hardware and software and mechanisms for feedback and gathering analytics.

RESOLVED that the significant investment and transformation of Service Communications since the Internal Communications Review in 2022 be noted, in particular that:

i)   Additional internal digital capabilities had been developed;

ii)  Bespoke training had been provided;

iii) Investment in digital hardware and software had been made; and

iv) Mechanisms had been developed for feedback and gathering analytics.

The Assistant Chief Officer - Director of Prevention presented the Service's performance for Quarter Three (Q3) 2025-26 for scrutiny and acceptance.

Members' attention was drawn to the 2,096 incidents attended in this quarter, an increase of 50 incidents (2.4%) compared to the same quarter last year. This was made up of 403 Fires (an increase of 18.5%) 711 Special Service Incidents (a decrease of 1%) and 982 False Alarms (a decrease of 0.6%).

Members noted that 1,930 Home Fire Safety Visits (HFSVs) were completed in Q3 2025 to 2026; of those visits 404 (21%) were delivered by Prevention Technicians and 1,526 (79%) were delivered by operational crews. All stations had exceeded their quarterly targets.

There had been 200 Road Traffic Collisions attended in Q3, which was an increase of 13 incidents (17%). Unfortunately there had been 11 fatalities at 9 incidents attended, 7 (64%) were over the age of 65.

Members were pleased to note that False Alarms had decreased this quarter to 983 (0.6%) and a further 127 Automatic Fire Alarms (AFAs) were call filtered by Fire Control following the Fire Authority's approval of the unwanted fire signal procedures.

With regard to the Attendance Performance Measure (APM), 449 (78%) out of 577 incidents had met the APM. 

The On-Call fire engine availability this quarter was 80.4%, which was a slight increase (0.6%) compared to the availability figure in the same period last year. The Chairman of the Committee expressed his satisfaction that Pershore fire station was now fully crewed. Members expressed their concern that Wyre Forest on-call availability was quite low and wanted reassurance for residents that the cover hadn't declined since the closure of Bewdley and Stourport fire stations. The Chief Fire Officer explained that this was due to difficulty recruiting on-call staff in the area for the third fire engine and a few junior officers were also wholetime where their core shift patterns impacted on availability at times. Recruitment was being worked on in the area to resolve this but it was apparent that recruiting in heavily built up urban areas was a lot more difficult than in rural areas, as potential on-call staff who may be interested in being a firefighter may not be released from their day jobs.

Staff sickness absence had decreased this quarter from 2.85 to 2.52 days lost per person.

Following Members' request at previous meetings, the report now included how many Safeguarding referrals had been made by the Service to other partner agencies. Members were pleased to note that in this quarter there had been 36 referrals.

[Cllr D Birch left the meeting at 11.21am].

RESOLVED that Members approved the details of the Q3 2025-26 performance headlines, in particular that:

i)   A total of 2,096 incidents were attended in Q3 2025-26 which was an increase of 2.4% (+50) compared to Q3 2024-25.

ii)  Fire incidents (403) increased by 18.5% (+63 incidents) when compared to Q3 2024-25 and were higher than the five-year average of 324.

iii) Special Services (711) decreased by 1% (-7 incidents) when compared to Q3 2024-25. Attended Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs) increased by 7% (+13 incidents) compared to Q3 2024-25.

iv) False Alarms (982) decreased by 0.6% (-6) compared with Q3 2024-25.