Nottinghamshire's Chief Fire Officer says it would be 'misleading' to say that cuts at some of the county's fire stations will not be considered again in future. His comments comes after it was confirmed at a recent meeting that plans to reduce services at West Bridgford, London Road and Stockhill had been scrapped for now.
A £5 increase in the council tax charged by Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue was approved but despite that, a budget deficit of £404,000 is still estimated for the financial year starting in April. This figure is expected to rise to £1.5 million by April 2026.
Craig Parkin took up his role as Chief Fire Officer last April after spending 28 years rising through the ranks of Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue. Speaking about the challenge of having to draw up plans for cuts over recent months, Mr Parkin said: "It's not a position a Chief Fire Officer wants to find themselves in, particularly new into the role. You want to provide excellent services to the public."
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Like authorities across the country, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue says it has been struggling with a rise in both inflation and demand for its services. The meeting approving the recent council tax rise on February 24 heard Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue was the seventh worst affected service across the country in terms of its core spending power reduction since 2010.
Councillor Michael Payne, the Chair of the City of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Authority, said Nottinghamshire had lost around 5 per cent of its funding since 2010, in contrast to areas such as Hampshire which have seen a funding increase of nearly 15% in the same period. Craig Parkin has been among those lobbying the Government for improved funding.
But Mr Parkin and others say a key issue for future planning is the fact that the Government only confirms local authority funding on a year-by-year basis. Craig Parkin said: "These year-on-year settlements are not helpful for long-term planning and what we're worried about is do you keep re-introducing the same anxieties every 12 months for people, not only for the workforce but for the public.
"That creates work for us, it's work we should be putting into positive engagement with communities. Unfortunately, we have to put it into how we lobby.
"I think I've realised as a Chief Fire Officer in my first year, politics and money are the two things I spend most of my time on. But we need to ensure a longer-term funding settlement for the sector generally across the whole country and that can only benefit the people of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire."
The recently dropped savings proposals, which were the subject of a public consultation, would have seen the night shift taken away from West Bridgford and a fire station removed from both London Road and Stockhill. At the February 24 meeting though, Craig Parkin did commit to drawing up proposals to see how Ashfield could be returned to a 24/7 fire station.
It's not clear how long the Ashfield plans will take to draw up but on the shelves plans for cuts, Craig Parkin said: "I'm not saying to take those recommendations at the moment. There will be relief at the minute and clearly the chair also said it's a reprieve.
"We're facing a budget deficit and 80% of our budget is salaries. Eighty plus of that 80% is sat on fire stations so for me to say we won't be coming back to look at it would be completely misleading in my view."
But Craig Parkin says Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue is also trying to be as efficient as possible in terms of its own operations. Firefighters could soon be asked to carry out administrative tasks on mobile devices in fire engines rather than having to do them on computers back at the station.
But Mr Parkin also says a key area of work is to get the public to see how Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue is "so much more than fire engines." Other key areas of work mentioned by the Chief Fire Officer include visits to people's homes and businesses, engagement with developers on building standards and prevention advice.
Craig Parkin added: "This is the only fire and rescue service I have known in 28 years, so I'm invested in the county and the city heavily. It's been a tough ten months for everybody involved in the fire and rescue service."
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