Community Risk Management Plan 2024-28

Introduction

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue is driven by a clear purpose: Working together to keep our communities safer.   

This purpose is at the heart of everything we do and is the golden thread that runs through and drives every decision we take, investment we make, our plans and actions now and in the future.   

The Fire and Rescue National Framework for England outlines the requirement for us to publish an Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) to show that we understand key risks and how we will mitigate them. The IRMP was renamed the Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) in fire and rescue services to promote a more community-based approach to risk management. It considers the specific needs of each local community through engagement and encourages collaboration between different agencies to develop and implement risk management plans.  

Our Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) shows how we understand our key community and organisational risks and what we are going to do about them over a four-year period. This is through using up-to-date risk information which is also developed in collaboration and consultation with our communities, colleagues, and partners. This plan focuses on the priority risks to our communities and organisation and outlines our plans over the next 4 years to mitigate these risks.  We have redesigned our CRMP to make it more accessible to help everyone understand the part they play in working collaboratively and in partnership to help keep our communities safer in line with our golden thread. 

The plan not only shows community risks, but also assesses our organisational risks. This is because we know that delivering our CRMP relies on having talented, engaged people in our organisation who will champion and reflect the communities we serve as part of our ongoing commitment to building a positive and inclusive working culture.  

We will achieve this through our service plan, department plans and personal development plans for every member of our team.  

All our plans and actions remain future focused to continually identify emerging risks and opportunities such as severe weather and technological advancements. Each plan encompasses our values and commitment to working collaboratively with people and organisations both near and far, and continually working together to keep our communities safer.  

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their continued support and contribution in our collective purpose to work together in keeping our communities safer. By being community first in our thinking and decision-making, we continue to provide the level of service that the people of Lincolnshire and beyond, deserve and expect from Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue.

Chief Fire Officer for Lincolnshire, Mark Baxter and Cllr Lindsey Cawrey, executive councillor for Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue

Our strategy

Safer communities 

1. By understanding our communities and the risks they face.
2. By being inclusive in our approach and tailoring services to meet the needs of our diverse communities.
3. By working with partners in a targeted, proactive and effective way.

Service delivery  

1. By having competent, confident and skilled staff.
2. By having the right skills, equipment and resources in the right places to reduce risk.
3. By having a learning culture and continually improving what we do and how we do it.
4. By striving to achieve a high level of service.

Value for money 

1. By making objective decisions based on evidence.
2. By making appropriate use of public money and providing best value.
3. By continually monitoring how we perform, sharing what we do, and embracing best practice from others.

People 

1. By becoming an employer of choice through building a diverse, inclusive, and supportive workplace that enables our people to thrive in a safe environment.
2. By giving our people the skills required to perform to the best of their ability and provide them with opportunities to realise their full potential.
3. By being role models, showing visible and inclusive leadership and challenging behaviour that falls short of our high standards.

About Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is the fourth largest county in England, covering 5,921 square kilometres. The county is classified as one of the most rural in England by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Around 10% of Lincolnshire is below the mean high-water level. When looking at the highest astronomical tide level, this increases to 20%. 

Lincolnshire's current population is estimated to be 769,474 people as of 2023.

The population of Lincolnshire is expected to grow by 10% by 2041. Most of Lincolnshire's population lives in rural areas, with around 70% living in villages or small towns. The largest town in Lincolnshire is Lincoln, which has a population of around 98,000 people.  

Lincolnshire has a higher proportion of residents aged 65 and over than the national average. In 2021, the proportion of the population aged 65 years and over was recorded as 23.4%, with 30% expected to be over 65 by 2041. Nationally, the proportion of the population in the age group of 15 – 64 years is 64.1%. For Lincolnshire, this is lower at 61.0%. The remaining age group, those aged 14 and under, make up 17.4% of the population nationally. For Lincolnshire, this is again lower at 15.6%. The 2021 Census estimates Lincolnshire as having a 6.8% proportion of non British population, compared with a national proportion of 10%. However, the proportion of non-British nationals in Boston Borough (20.9%) is significantly higher.  

70% of adults in the county are overweight or obese. National estimates of levels of morbid obesity suggest that there may be 11,500 adults with a BMI over 40 and nearly 800 with a BMI over 50 in Lincolnshire. The proportion of adults who smoke in Lincolnshire, is 14.0% as of 2023, according to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). This is slightly higher than the UK average of 12.9%. There is a considerable difference between the districts, with 23.5% smoking in Lincoln and 8.3% in North Kesteven.  

It was estimated that 11,688 people aged 65 and over were living with dementia in Lincolnshire in 2017. This accounted for 6.7% of all adults aged 65 and over. It is estimated that more than 15,000 individuals in Lincolnshire have a learning disability. 

About Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue

To deliver our services across Lincolnshire, we deploy the following people, premises, and assets: 

• 38 fire stations 
• Joint fire and police headquarters at Nettleham 
• 48 frontline fire engines 
• 2 aerial appliances 
• 15 special appliances 
• 4 swift water rescue boats 
• 26 co-responder vehicles 

673 members of staff made up of: 

• 69 support staff 
• 20 control room staff 
• 584 firefighters of which  
• 404 on-call 
• 180 full-time consisting of: 
• 108 station based 
• 21 in Organisational Development 
• 51 in leadership, management, and support roles

Outside of response, the other departments are staffed with a mix of operational (Grey Book) and non-operational personnel. The mix of types of staff in each department can be seen below: 

IRMP evaluation

Our IRMP for 2020 to 2024 was based on the following seven objectives: 

• reduce fires and their consequences
• reduce road traffic collisions and their consequences
• improve health and wellbeing
• protect the community and environment from the impact of major emergencies
• manage our resources effectively
• manage our people effectively
• govern the business effectively

To evaluate if we are successfully meeting these objectives, we monitor and report on numerous performance measures. Although the full cycle of this IRMP has not yet finished, we can report that: 

• domestic dwelling fires are at their lowest number for five years and are predicted to fall further
• despite an increase in the number of road traffic collision incidents we have attended, 2022/23 saw a 19% decrease in the number of people killed or seriously injured
• a full review of the co-responding capability has taken place, and an ongoing funding agreement has been secured for 2024/25 and beyond
• we have implemented the recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and taken part in large multi-agency exercises through the local resilience forum in the last two years
• we have reviewed the duty systems of our wholetime stations and will implement the findings in the coming year. We are also in the process of reviewing all prevention, protection and support functions.  
• the Waddington training site purchase has been completed, and a project is underway to develop the site
• view our annual statement of assurance

We also consulted on and changed how we report our response standards. The old percentage success against expected time of arrival has been replaced with an average response time based on incident type. 

We feel this is easier for the public to understand and more in line with how the Home Office reports attendance times nationally. 

Our performance against our response standards this year has been: 

Community risks

The Cabinet Office is responsible for managing the National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) – a classified cross-government and scientifically rigorous assessment of the most serious risks facing the UK.

The NSRA then forms the basis of the Community Risk Register (CRR), a more localised analysis conducted by Lincolnshire’s Local Resilience Forum (LRF). The organisation considers both documents, alongside data from historical incidents, to identify what types of incidents pose the greatest threat to the community. 

We have also asked for the opinions and feedback from members of the community, running two engagement campaigns where we first asked for any risks the public felt should be added to the list from the previous IRMP for consideration, and then secondly, for the public to place the suggested risks for 2024-28 into order of importance.  

We took the feedback from this engagement and combined it with our risk assessment to produce the following list of seven key community risks.  

Dwelling (house) fire  

According to the UK Census 2021, there are 298,100 households in Lincolnshire. Of these, 104,400 are rented, which is around 35% of the total number of households.

36% of all dwelling fires occur in premises where there is just one person living there.

Over the last five years, we have seen a steady reduction in the number of dwelling fires we attend, with 314 incidents attended in 2022/23.

An ageing population that may have more complex health and care needs present a particular risk that we will need to address through our prevention activities.  

Road traffic collision 

There are approximately 5,500 miles of road in Lincolnshire.

There were 439 people killed or seriously injured on Lincolnshire’s roads in 2022. This is a decrease from the 453 people killed or seriously injured in 2021, but still too high a number.

We have seen an increase in the number of RTCs we attend over the last five years, with 702 incidents attended in 2022/23. 

Flooding 

The number of flooding incidents we attend can vary from year to year, with an average of 160 a year.

In 2022/23, we attended 192 flooding incidents.

We have dealt with a number of large flooding incidents in the last few years, with the breach at Wainfleet in 2019, heavy rain in August 2022 flooding an estimated 100 properties in Spalding, Pinchbeck and Market Rasen, and Storm Babet in October 2023, where more than a month’s worth of rain fell in 24 hours causing flooding across the county. 

Non-domestic fires 

The greatest proportion of non-domestic fires were caused by an electrical fault (37%), followed by deliberate ignition and cooking appliances.

Over the last five years, we attended an average of 140 fires at non-domestic premises.  

Wildfires 

Although there is a specific definition of a wildfire, it can be taken to include most large fires in woodland, farmland or other open space.

The weather significantly influences how many incidents we attend, but there has been an overall increase over the last five years.  

Deliberate fires (arson) 

The highest number of deliberate fires involve refuse or grassland, with vehicle fires consisting of over a third of the fires that involve damage to property.

The overall number of these incidents we attend is rising, but the hot, dry summer of 2022 and the significant increase in grassland and field fires account for most of this increase.  

Malicious attacks 

The Government constantly assesses the threat to the UK from terrorism and communicates this through a threat level. This level has not dropped below substantial in the last five years, which means that an attack is likely.

There have been two periods of three months where the level was raised to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely.

Fortunately, no attacks have taken place in Lincolnshire; however, some locations and venues may be considered targets due to their historical importance or the number of people who might gather there.

LFR has taken part in operations with other agencies to assist in the investigation of activity suspected of being connected with a malicious attack. 

Organisational risks

We define organisational risks as those that can potentially affect our service internally. These prevent us from conducting our business effectively, for example, mobilising fire appliances to incidents. 

We assess and review these risks continuously. This is informed by several national and local factors and is linked to our corporate risk register. 

Our organisational risks are recorded on our corporate risk register. We have identified the following significant risks for the period 2024 to 2028: 

Loss of a considerable proportion of staff through illness, industrial action or severe weather 

The availability of our appliances and our ability to supply other services may be affected should a large number of our staff be unavailable for work.

This risk was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic and has arisen again through the threat of industrial action within the fire sector and in other organisations.

Severe weather that closes roads or creates excess demand can also affect service delivery.

To mitigate this, we keep business continuity plans and conduct tabletop exercises covering various scenarios. We have also reviewed our plans to support delivery through industrial action, working with others in the sector on a peer-review basis.  

Change in the legislative or financial landscape 

Over the last two decades, periods of financial shocks and instability have directly affected the funding of Fire and Rescue Services.

These continue to happen (e.g. COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine), and we must be prepared to manage the impact of such events.

There are a number of potential legislative changes coming in the next four years, with further reform of fire safety and building regulations, as well as more responsibilities coming from an updated Civil Contingencies Act and implantation of proposals in the May 2022 Fire and Rescue Service white paper. 

Failure to recruit and retain skilled staff

Our staff are at the centre of all we do, and we want to ensure they have the right conditions to flourish and deliver the best service possible to the communities in Lincolnshire. This requires us to refine our recruitment processes to attract the best people, offering opportunities across our communities to work for us in operational and non-operational roles.

There are problems we face in keeping staff too, with demand from other services and the private sector for the skills that our staff have.

The service relies on On-Call firefighters to provide fire cover across the county, and this duty system has its own barriers to recruitment and retention.

We recognise the dedication of these On-Call firefighters needs to be recognised, and we are constantly working to increase the attractiveness of the role by improving our offer to On-Call firefighters, their families and primary employers.  

Adverse effects on the service due to climate change 

In recent years, we have seen an increase in demand caused by spate conditions, including increased calls for service for incidents involving flooding, wildfires, and fires in the open.

It is predicted that these spells of heavy rain and prolonged elevated temperatures will become more frequent, and we must plan to meet these peaks in demand.

We are already seeing Government policies aimed at slowing the rate of change, such as demands for energy efficiency, generation of renewable energy and the phasing out of vehicles that use fossil fuels. We are addressing this through our estate and fleet strategies. 

Strategic priority areas

Safer communities 

• We will have sustainable and scalable interventions in place to mitigate the impact of changing communities.
• We will optimise the use of data to prioritise and target people who may be at greater risk of fire and other emergencies.
• We will ensure we have skilled professionals in place to monitor (and enforce non-compliance), relevant fire safety legislation in the built environment.

Service delivery 

• We will provide sustainable mobilising and command and control infrastructure.
• We will streamline the way we manage data and the technology we use to access it.
• We will ensure we have a sustainable response model.
• We will ensure the health and safety of our staff remains a priority.

Value for money 

• We will provide training and development facilities that are fit for the future.
• We will invest in our ability to deliver service wide improvements.
• We will further develop our performance measurement and management capability.
• We will develop our plans to invest in the future of the service as a force multiplier.

People 

• We will develop leadership and management capability at all levels in the service.
• We will utilise innovative practices to attract, select, and champion talented people, enabling diversity and embracing difference.
• We will develop the diverse skill sets of our people to build an agile, professional and competent workforce.
• We will continue to develop a happy, healthy and resilient workforce.

Prevention

Our prevention team plays a critical role in helping to keep our communities safe. We continue to develop our understanding of risk, analysing national data sets and using local partners’ data. Delivery plans ensure we target and support those who need it most. 

Our identified community risks are the focus of planning and prevention work. We plan and deliver prevention activities in line with identified partners, considering new and emerging community risks. The service is at the heart of Lincolnshire’s communities and is ideally placed to support people who need our help. 

With an ageing population and changing demographics across the county, we will train our workforce to provide timely, accurate and relevant safety information. By having an agile workforce whilst focusing on core risks, we can flex to support and integrate our services. 

Home safety  

Our Home Fire Safety Visits will be our main method of delivering prevention activities and keeping people safe in their homes. A blend of proactive and reactive visits allows us to target our communities and those identified as most vulnerable.

A person-centred approach ensures individual needs are at the heart of our activities.

Although we focus on fire safety, our staff are trained to support wider community safety concerns and risks, e.g., mental health, including dementia, serious violence, frauds and scams, and healthy and accessible homes. 

Road safety  

We align to the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership (LRSP) and its strategy to deliver educational activities.

All activities are targeted and planned, contributing to preventing road traffic collisions and reducing the number killed and seriously injured on our roads.

Our road safety activities are coordinated by a dedicated community safety advocate, who provides timely updates and support for our operational crews. Further information can be found through LRSP’s strategy.

Safeguarding  

A robust safeguarding policy is supported by a training plan which ensures all staff members recognise safeguarding concerns and report through the agreed channels.

As a key stakeholder with the Lincolnshire Adults Safeguarding Board and the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Childrens Partnership we contribute to county-wide initiatives. Our processes support serious incident reviews to maintain and promote a learning culture. 

Arson Task Force  

We will build on our established partnership with Lincolnshire Police to further embed our Arson Task Force (ATF), within our communities.

The aim is to reduce the number of deliberate fires and related anti-social behaviours. Intelligence sharing, data analysis and targeted campaign work offers support to a wider partner network to combat the effects of deliberate fire setting.

Recognising the link to specialist resources, the ATF links with our Fire Intervention Scheme and Fire Investigation team to offer tailored advice with a view to educating and improving awareness of the dangers of deliberate fire setting. 

Organisationally, we are committed to horizon scanning and monitoring the potential for emerging risks. National and local sources of data will be viewed and analysed to ensure the Service and prevention team consider how best to plan and mitigate identified risks.   

We will support and take guidance from the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), who, as the professional voice of the fire sector, aims to ensure that fire and rescue services are at the forefront of prevention work. Our continued aim is to ensure that we provide relevant safety information to promote safety and keep our communities as safe as possible.

Protection

The past few years have seen an unprecedented change in fire protection legislation. A number of tragic events have resulted in the spotlight focusing on fire protection activities. Fire safety in the built environment is recognised as an effective method of keeping people safe, and our Fire Protection team is committed to educating and enforcing safety standards. 

It is important we understand those buildings that present the highest levels of risk, housing those who are most vulnerable and greatest societal risk. Our competent and highly experienced workforce has the most up-to-date training to deliver protection activities. 

We work closely with our partners to share data and understand risk in the built environment. We will explore using technology to streamline our processes to allow work to be carried out effectively and efficiently. 

Appropriate action is taken in relation to those who disregard the need for compliance with fire protection requirements. We will work with businesses (as far as reasonably practicable) in line with the regulator's code to help them comply with legislation. However we will enforce against legislation where necessary to ensure the safety of our communities.  

Fire safety audits  

Our primary method of ensuring compliance against the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRFSO) is to carry out fire safety audits. We ensure our fire safety inspectors are competent and updated in line with national legislative updates. Whilst we target identified risks and also react to intelligence and information received from members of the public and partner agencies. 

Our dedicated fire safety officers deliver against our inspection plan, focusing on the highest risks. They are supported by our operational crews, who carry out inspections commensurate with their level of training and skills. Ongoing development ensures all staff are given the appropriate skills and tools to carry out protection activities. 

We use our enforcement powers where appropriate, issuing formal notices where identified risks pose a threat to life. 

Risk Based Inspection Programme  

Our Risk Based Inspection Programme allows the level of risk to be assessed and allocation of a relative risk rating as required. This inspection programme provides a clear focus for the Protection Team and allows work to be prioritised.

While national datasets are considered when evaluating risk, local risk and partner datasets ensure local risk drives activities.

Information from the Care Quality Commission, food hygiene ratings and Environmental health officers are examples of information used to inform local risk and activities. 

Business engagement  

Providing information on how to comply with fire safety legislation to local businesses in several formats is a key part of the delivery. Partnerships are formed with established business forums across the county, e.g. Chamber of Commerce and Small Business Alliance.

These provide a platform for sharing information and educating as required. Campaigns are carried out with partners, focusing on identified local and national issues, for example, with Trading Standards colleagues. 

Consultations  

Our specialist-trained Fire Safety Inspectors support consultations where appropriate, offering advice and details where non-compliance is identified.

Our Fire Safety Inspectors remain current with changes made to improve consultative processes, offering the appropriate level of oversight and scrutiny to new and existing high-risk premises within scope of the fire safety legislation. 

Response

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue aims to provide an efficient and effective emergency response to all fires and other emergencies across Lincolnshire.  

We achieve this by having competent staff with the appropriate skills and equipment and by working with partners to protect the public from the effects of incidents. 

We value our staff, and we organise systems of work, provide personal protective equipment and deliver training to maintain their safety when responding to incidents. 

Our staff are committed to continual improvement, and we take every opportunity to learn from operational incidents, share our findings with the fire sector and other partners to implement agreed improvements and identify and act on opportunities for continuous improvement. 

Funding has been secured for 2024/25 to allow us to maintain our successful co-responding model. Our work on co-responding was highlighted in our most recent inspection report as promising practice and we will continue to work with our partners to secure the future of this highly successful activity. 

The Assured Level of Response model that enables us to ensure that resources are available in the areas of highest risk was also praised by inspectors. Overall, the Service received a good rating for responding to emergencies and major incidents. We will build on this strong platform to improve further, and address areas for improvement in other areas.  

Organisational support

Organisational Support provides internal services required to perform our prevention, protection and response functions. It provides resources, including premises, fleet, equipment, information and intelligence.

Organisational Support is managed in three broad categories:

• Service Support
• Operational Support
• Integrated Risk Management

These teams consist of a mixture of operational and support staff who strive to provide the best support possible to ensure others have the resources they need to work effectively.

Where Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) or other partners provide a service, such as in IT or estates, Organisational Support collaborates with those partners to ensure our needs are met. 

In addition to tasks such as:

• providing performance information
• maintaining communications equipment
• keeping the operational fleet and equipment in optimum working order
• large, service-wide projects

We also ensure we can continue to operate through periods of disruption by creating and testing business continuity plans to manage issues occurring on a regional and national level.

We work with our Local Resilience Forum (LRF) partners to ensure we are ready to respond to large-scale emergencies where a multi-agency approach will result in a more effective outcome. 

We ensure the supply of frontline equipment reflects the diverse risks presented to us across the county. At the same time, we will consider how we can adapt our provision of equipment in line with the LCC green strategy to help minimise environmental impacts. We will also continue seeking opportunities to collaborate with partners to drive efficiencies and work together to keep our communities safer. 

LFR’s current consortium arrangements with three other Fire and Rescue services for its Control mobilisation function ends on 31 March 2025. This function provides us with the ability to receive 999 calls and to mobilise the appropriate assets to the incident. We are working closely and collaboratively with LCC’s IT and Commercial teams to secure the next generation of service and systems to ensure we continue working together to keep our communities safer. 

The software applications we use to support our protection, prevention and operational risk functions have been superseded by new releases and technology. We want to have a system providing one version of the ‘truth’ for all our departments, with information flowing freely between each discipline. To that end, we are in the process of procuring a new integrated management information system. This will enable the retrieval of the most up-to-date information at the touch of a button, providing our crews and staff with all the information they require.  

People

We are committed to strengthening our ability to provide an excellent service by diversifying our staff, promoting inclusion and creating a fair and equal workplace.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue is a workplace where all staff are valued and supported and feel they belong, in an environment free from bullying, harassment, discrimination, abuse and harm. We want our employees to bring their authentic selves to work every day so they can thrive and continue to help keep our communities safer by delivering services that are professional, inclusive, safe and inspire public confidence and trust.

We are proud of our reputation as the emergency service people turn to when no one else can help. We also recognise that what is good today, may not be good enough tomorrow. To this end, we continue to embrace a culture of continuous improvement to build on our strengths and positively impact lives, both our own and those of the communities we serve. 

Our vision is to have a ‘healthy, happy and resilient workforce.’ We are committed to ensuring a healthy and safe working environment which supports all staff in maintaining and enhancing their personal health and wellbeing at work. We do this by prioritising preventative health initiatives and providing the tools and support to encourage managers and staff to stay fit, happy and healthy.

We also want to ensure all staff have access to a whole health and wellbeing offering, enabling them to access the support needed to keep and enhance their physical, mental, social, and financial wellbeing. This intrinsically aligns with Lincolnshire County Council’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy.  

To thrive in a constantly changing environment, we rely on having people with the capabilities and behaviours needed for current and future organisational success. This not only means having the right people in the right roles but also that these people have access to opportunities to help them progress and reach their potential, whether this is in their current role or for a future position.

We must also make sure that our workforce is 100% competent in their core skills to ensure we continue to keep our communities safer. Fundamental to this goal is the development and provision of high-quality training, opportunities and talent management processes aligned to national guidance. 

Financial overview

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue receives its revenue and capital funding from Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) annually. View LCC’s budgets and financial strategy.  

When we, along with other public organisations, are facing an uncertain future, we must have a practical and effective financial plan in place. We achieve this by closely and regularly examining our finances at all levels, ensuring we get the best value for the money we spend to achieve our goals. To help us plan, we ensure our funding assumptions from central and local sources align with our agreed objectives. 

We are dedicated to finding more efficient ways to provide our services by working closely with other agencies. This could involve shared facilities, joint procurement, or partnership agreements. We are also committed to understanding the economic cost compared to the benefits of investing in our services and the value it brings to our communities.

We actively participate in the NFCC economic cost of fire project. We will ensure the results of this work align with our evaluation framework and financial planning for the future. 

Our budget is managed in two ways:

• the revenue budget covers the everyday expenses of running our organisation, including salaries and wages
• the capital budget is allocated to specific projects and programmes

We have a ten-year capital plan agreed with LCC where the funds are released when needed in the project lifecycles. For 2023/24, LFR’s revenue budget was set at £22.2m, an increase of £326k from last year. This is to address the budget pressures from the high level of inflation and the reduction of the Firelink government grant. The capital budget is £2.7m.  

The information below explains how we allocate our revenue spending by function/service area and category. As in most organisations, the category staff wages form the bulk of our spending.

Response is the largest cost when looking at items by service area, with operational firefighters making up over three-quarters of the workforce.

However, station-based firefighters carry out training, prevention and protection duties as part of their working day, so the response budget contributes to activity in other areas.  

Budget by category:

• wages - £18,616,515
• premises - £255,060
• supplies and services - £1,712,857
• fleet - £1,625,710

Budget by service area:

• response - £13,823,252
• organisational support - £4,392,964
• organisational development - £2,381,607
• prevention and protection - £1,612,319

A backdated pay award for 2022 and mid-year in 2023, means the revised 2023/24 budget is now £24.7m. For 2024/25 it is proposed that the budget increases by a further £322k, (1.3%), to £25m. This is due to cost pressures on the Service from the Fire Control project and mandatory accreditation of forensic fire investigation and DBS checks. The capital budget is set at £4.6m. These figures are still subject to change following public consultation and council approval.