Archived decisions

Appendix 11

Feedback from consultation meetings

Two meetings took place on Tuesday 13 January 2009. These notes provide a brief summary of the questions and issues raised.

1. Consultation with trades unions representatives

The following representatives attended:

Eddie Burrows - Hampshire Branch of the Fire Brigades Union

Brian Neat - Fire Officers' Association

Paul Trew - Hampshire Branch of the Fire Brigades Union

No specific concerns were raised with any of the proposed budget options.

Clarification was sought about proposals for improvements on fire stations for female firefighters. It was confirmed that a combination of revenue and capital funding would be used to fund a programme of improvement works over the next three years. It would not be possible to fund all improvements in 2009/10.

Question about the potential pay costs of implementing the `rank-to-role' exercise for control room staff. It was explained that the sums involved would be met from within existing overall pay budgets.

Question about the value of the former Copnor Fire Station site. Confirmed that the site is unlikely to be put on the open market until later in the year - offers would be invited.

Clarification was sought about the increase in the employers contribution to the pension scheme. It was confirmed that this was in respect of the Local Government Pension Scheme, not the Firefighters' Pension Scheme. The opportunity taken to mention forthcoming review to be undertaken of the Firefighters Pension Scheme by Government Actuaries Department. The results may have significant funding implications for central government and potentially fire and rescue authorities in the future.

It was confirmed that the proposed reduction in the retained firefighters pay budget (-£52,000) is in the variable costs of turnout and attendance fees.

2. Consultation with taxpayers

The following representatives attended from the Hampshire Strategic Partnerships and Business interests

Havant District Liaison Group (HDLG)

Generally very supportive comments received from the consultees. Given that the range of increase in council tax is less than two pence per week between option A and option D, several representatives seemed content with an increase of 4.1% - particularly on the basis that it might provide a bit more of a cushion for future years.

The questions and concerns raised can be grouped by subject area:

Efficiency gains:

Can we carry on making efficiency savings year after year? It was explained that provided there is sufficient capacity in the budget to enable change to take place we can always make improvements in the way we deliver our services.

Do we always measure effectiveness and efficiency in financial terms? It was explained that we use a range of performance indicators to demonstrate how well we are performing across the whole service. Use of resources is considered of major importance and we indicated that we are pleased that the Audit Commission considers that we do well in this area. It was explained that we were proud of the positive progress we are making on virtually all of our key performance indicators.

Have we been able to reduce staff numbers as a result of developments in information technology? The introduction of mobile working for the inspecting officers has enabled administrative staff numbers to be reduced, but more importantly IT developments have improved our access to management information enabling us to focus and direct our resources to areas of greatest need in the community. It was also explained that developing and maintaining information and communications technology has meant we have increased the number of specialist support staff over the last ten years.

Property:

Confirmation requested on the number of vacant business and residential properties we have and whether we have considered renting them out to offset the costs in the light of the current economic climate. It was explained that we have a former fire station at Copnor, a vacant site at Basingstoke and several houses and flats which are now surplus to requirements following changes in deployment and crewing arrangements. The Authority's preference is to sell these properties rather than manage lettings. Some of the houses/flats are proving difficult to sell because of the downturn in the property market and the potential to invite a housing association to manage them has not been ruled out.

Wouldn't it be better to spend money from the capital programme to improve all our buildings instead of constantly increasing the buildings maintenance budget? It was explained that with 51 fire stations and a headquarters, realistically we couldn't afford to replace one per year with a new or refurbished building; therefore repair and maintenance of the built estate is going to remain a significant expenditure item. Use of Public Finance Initiative had been considered, but there was little appetite - on a regional basis - to pursue this.

Planning and Service Delivery:

Do we take into account the impact of population increases generally and development of eco-towns in our planning? We confirmed that we normally have the capacity to respond to the risks that arise from additional housing, but would seek developer contributions if any `new town' development required additional infrastructure. We also took the opportunity to promote the benefits of installation of residential sprinklers in terms of saving life, property and damage to the environment.

The business community is increasingly aware of the work we are doing on prevention and wondered if we had undertaken any cost benefit analysis of spending on community safety: e.g. has there been a reduction in the number of fires? Examples given were the activities of the arson task force, schools education and the 40% reduction in calls attended as a result of the automatic fire detection (AFD) reduction strategy. Alan Chatfield was keen to meet with us to see how we can work together to reduce AFD's still further.

There was a concern about the A3M development and the belief that when the tunnel is built there will be a 10% increase in traffic and therefore more risk of accidents. In our response, we explained that we are still keen to replace Havant and Waterlooville Stations with a single station close to a junction on the A3M. However as the plans for major development at Dunsbury Hill Farm are not imminent, we have not flagged this up in our current capital programme.

Concern was raised over reports of attacks on firefighters and we were able to confirm that we are fortunate to have only experienced a few isolated incidents.

Finance:

The business community feel they get a good deal from the fire and rescue service but warned that as the country slips into recession many businesses will close down and therefore the government's receipts from non-domestic rates (NDR) could plummet; and, as a consequence, we might find that Government grants are reduced within the current funding cycle. It was confirmed that we are aware of these sort of risks and would continue to explore the opportunity to make further efficiency savings in order to keep within budget and still deliver high quality services without compromising the safety of our staff or the public.

In response to a question on disposal of our obsolete equipment it was confirmed that we seek to get best value whilst acknowledging that there was a need to ensure that uniforms and personal protective equipment are not sold to people who might try to pass themselves off as firefighters. Each year we sell six fire engines to the highest bidders and one or two are sometimes donated to a developing country.

It was confirmed that the cost of running the regional control centres was being born by the Government until six months after they come into operation.

There was concern that whilst staff numbers remain the same in the year ahead the base budget was being reduced by £34,000 for firefighter pension costs. This is because the Authority is liable only for the additional costs of ill-health retirements; and within our workforce wellbeing strategy we try to minimise these by redeploying staff wherever possible.

Some concluding comments on the four council tax options (A, B, C, D)

"We think you will choose D"

"You could choose option C to show you have made an effort"

"The difference between A and D is so small that you should go for D to prepare for hard times ahead."

"In 12 months time there could be a very different financial situation so go for option D."

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