© Copyright Roger Mardon
www.romar.org.uk
All rights reserved
Fire service historian and author
Roger Mardon
www.romar.org.uk
- Photo galleries of historic and modern fire engines
- Photographic record of some major incidents
- Fact files with information about fire engines and fire service history
- An ever expanding source of knowledge for those interested in fire brigades and fire engines
- Section on the New Dimension programme and its specialised appliances
- News from the firefighting world
WHAT’S NEW
A few new pages for Berkshire added 13-
Auxiliary towing vehicle (ATV) added 13-
KENT FIRE MUSEUM
Kent Fire & Rescue Museum is looking for a new home. Among the exhibits preserved
is this Shand Mason horse-
Other appliances preserved include a 1939 open Leyland FT4A pump escape and a 1941 Austin K2 auxiliary towing vehicle, as well as early manual pumps and escape ladders.
An exceptional range of smaller artefacts and a comprehensive historical archive are also maintained by the museum.
Click here to see more and a BBC News Channel item with views of the museum and an interview produced before the decision to close the museum on its present site had been taken.
NEW GOVERNMENT TO STOP FORCED REGIONALISATION OF FIRE SERVICE
In its document The Coalition: our programme for government (May 2010), the new coalition government says it will stop plans to force the regionalisation of the fire service.
In March this year the Communities and Local Government Select Committee appointed by the House of Commons reported on the FiReControl project. It concluded that the project had been inadequately planned, poorly executed and badly managed, and that there were considerable doubts about whether the project could be delivered. However, given the investment of public funds already committed and the benefits that will accrue, the committee also concluded that the project should continue, subject to significant concerns and issues being addressed by the Department for Communities & Local Government (CLG).
Interestingly, the Select Committee stated that the primary purpose of the fire and rescue service is the prompt and efficient mobilisation of firefighters in response to a fire or other related incident, in order to save life and property. One could be forgiven for thinking that was no longer the case after looking at the Integrated Risk Management Plans (IRMPs) of some services. The aim of the FiReControl project is to enable this critical function to be carried out with greater speed, responsiveness and efficiency.
The project would reduce the 46 stand-
The costs have gone up from an anticipated £120 million in July 2004 to the current forecast of £423 million. CLG originally expected the project to realise efficiencies and save costs locally that would be in excess of the costs of the project but it now expects the overall project to cost £240 million more than the local savings forecast. Not every fire and rescue authority will save costs locally as a result of the project and the department plans to make annual payments of £8.2 million to those authorities.
The change-
The new coalition government says it will stop plans to force regionalisation of the fire service, but what does that actually mean? Judging from earlier statements by Caroline Spelman when she was Shadow Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government (she is now Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), it must refer to RCCs. But as each fire & rescue authority has, according to the CLG Select Committee report, the legal right to accept FiReControl or not, it could be said there was no enforced regionalisation in the first place.
We will have to wait and see. Just as we will have to wait and see how cuts of £780 million in the CLG budget will impact on the fire service.