The Acting Chief Fire Officer addressed the Committee and in doing so explained that Essex Fire Authority was half way through the second part of their consultation. He continued to explain they were at their current position within the consultation as:

•               On the 13 January Essex Fire Authority approved a set of three options for consultation;

•               From the 1 February saw the launch of a 12 week consultation which was due to conclude on the 25 April;

•               Then 4 weeks of reviewing the results; and

•               On the 8 June the Essex Fire Authority will meet to discuss and to make a decision and implementation of the decision will follow.

Members were informed that even with an increase in Population by 8% and traffic by 12%, incidents had reduced by 45%. It was further commented the Road Traffic Collisions attend had increased by 14% in the past 5 years with

Dwelling fires in total having decreased by 15%.

The Acting Chief Fire Officer notified the Committee that within a 24 hour period 44% of calls were false alarms with only 11% being true incidents. It was explained to Members that operational resources were not spread evenly across the County, with larger areas having 6 plus appliances available in 15 minutes.  It was commented therefore the Fire Authority could make more changes in these areas.

The Committee were advised that 7.5 thousand homes in Thurrock did not have a working smoke alarm. The Acting Chief Fire Officer further notified Members that they were looking into a residential sprinkler scheme, to be installed within all high risk and high housing properties.

Members were further advised the Fire Authority were:

•               Working with every school to teach children of all age groups of fire safety. So far 8 thousand children had received the safety talk;

•               Working through the Safer Essex Road Partnership with drivers and riders to reduce the number of people killed or injured on our roads;

In additional new response standards were to begin at the time of call rather than the time the station is alerted:

•               To attend 90% of calls in 15 minutes and

•               To attend potentially life threatening calls within 10 minutes.

The Acting Chief Fire Officer talked Members through the 3 options possible within the consultation. During discussions it was commented that within the options Thurrock was set to lose up to a half of their pumping applications. It was stressed to Members that no matter the decision, the nearest and quickest resource would be sent.

Members were notified that with changes to funding and savings by 2020, the Fire Authority would have a deficit of £9.9million, this would include and investment of £3million a year in community safety.

The Committee were informed that drop in sessions had been held throughout the County since February 2015, with the Grays drop in on the 21 March.

Members queried as to how with the suggested options and Thurrock’s COMAH sites, how if a repeat of Tilbury Power Station was occur the Fire Authority would be able to meet their standards.

Assurance was given to the Committee if 10 Pumping appliances were required then 5 appliances would be sent. It was also explained that arrangements were in place with Kent, London and Hertfordshire so if needed resources could be called upon regionally and if needed nationally.

It was questioned as to given the options, no savings had been made to Chelmsford. The Acting Chief Fire Officer explained that the modelling carried out ensured that activity levels also met the standard response times of getting to an incident within 10 or 15 minutes. He further advised that resources were not evenly spread, however within the Thames corridor there were more resources available.

The Chair of the Committee thanked both Officers for attending and for the assurances given throughout the presentation.