Fire Authority update

Members approved the option to reduce the number of fire engines in Immingham from three to two and maintain both fire stations, but to manage both of the engine crews from Immingham East, with the engines then split between the two stations as appropriate.

Members did not approve any of the options to remove fire engines from Hornsea, Withernsea, Brough or Market Weighton.

The forecast budget shortfall by 2019/20 is £2.2m. Assuming we are able to save £1m from the Service Redesign programme, that means we will need to make £1.2m of operational savings. Whilst the option approved is expected to save £1.1m, it is anticipated that the remaining £100k can be saved from discretionary spend in other areas.

It is possible to implement this option without the need for redundancies and the implementation will be managed in line with the Service retirement profile. That means the engine would stay available until such a point that crewing won’t allow it. However, given recent retirements, it is likely this will happen relatively quickly and work will be carried out locally to establish the exact date to make the change.

In the first instance, when the number of engines is reduced to two, one of the engines will remain available at each station during night-time sleeping hours, in the same way as it is being done in Grimsby. This will be reviewed periodically to ensure that the engines are located in the most appropriate location at different times of the day, taking into consideration operational demands and risk.