North Wales Fire Authority

[SteveH]

I am biased over this subject,... and believe this and the ambulance service should be given priority, purely on the time factor aspect, nobody want's to be waiting for either service.

North Wales Fire service could lose more than 220 jobs without extra funding
North Wales could lose more than 220 firefighter jobs if it does not get a funding increase of £3.3m over the next five years.
The worst case scenario would see North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority chiefs having to slash 10% off the budget, if cash funding for the fire service is not increased, they have warned.
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/north-wales-fire-service-could-7987115


A consultation document ‘Your Services Your Choices’ said: “What are your views" ?Should the Authority close fire stations and reduce its running costs, or should the Fire and Rescue Service be protected at additional cost to the county councils?”
This is a long read, but important.

http://www.nwales-fireservice.org.uk/media/611735/improvement_objectives_for_consultation.pdf?lang=en?lang=en

[SteveH]

AWDURDOD TÂN AC ACHUB GOGLEDD CYMRU
NORTH WALES FIRE AND RESCUE AUTHORITY
YOUR SERVICES, YOUR CHOICES
PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON THE LEVEL OF FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICES
PROVIDED IN NORTH WALES2015-16 AND BEYOND
I would like to invite you to take part in North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority’s public consultation.
This is an important consultation about the fire and rescue services that are provided in North Wales.
We are committed to making North Wales a safer place to live, work and visit. Your views about the
future of North Wales Fire and Rescue will help us to plan the sort of services that the public expects.
The financial pressures on public services mean that difficult decision are having to be made about
how to continue to meet demand for services but with dwindling budgets.
This consultation presents three options – which would you support? Alternatively, you may have a
better suggestion for providing affordable fire and rescue services in North Wales?
We would like as many people as possible to participate by telling us what they would like to see
happen to fire and rescue services in the area over the next few years.
Click here for a summary that gives an overview of the issues, and further information and contact
details are available from the Authority’s website www.nwales-fireservice.org.uk
You can let us know what you think by completing our short survey - http://goo.gl/6JGFzE
We appreciate your time is valuable but it should only take a few minutes to complete the survey -
we do not ask for any personal data and all survey responses are anonymous. Responses will only be
used by us to help shape the future objectives and all data collected will be treated confidentially.
The deadline for completing the survey is 9
th January 2015.
The Authority will consider its future plans in light of the responses received before the deadline
above and publish the final 2015-16 Improvement Plan on the Authority’s website by 31st March
2015.
On behalf of North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority, thank you for your time and we look forward to
hearing from you.
Councillor Meirick Lloyd Davies
Chair of North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority

[SteveH]

I wonder when they will reach breaking point.

North Wales firefighters stretched by 1,000 false alarms involving burnt toast.
Figures obtained by the Daily Post via a Freedom of Information Request reveal over the past three years that 1,177 call-outs involved burnt toast and/or cooking.
Of all the false alarms recorded by the fire service – a total of 4,784 were caused by automatic smoke alarms being triggered and a further 3,310 incidents were deemed to be with “good intent”.
Another 204 call-outs were deemed to be “malicious”.

Figures show that automatic smoke alarms have also been triggered for unnecessary reasons including aerosols, smoking and bad maintenance.
While other unexpected triggers include water, power surges and even dust and flies.

However, in April 2015 fire chiefs changed their false alarm policy so that an emergency response is only sent out if a back-up 999 call is made.
The decision was made by North Wales Fire Authority members in December 2014 in a bid to cut costs and “avoid having to make any reductions in core services”
Chief fire officer Simon Smith said: “This change reflects the challenges we as a public service must face as we try to make the best case possible for our financial future. Changing the way we respond to AFAs (automatic fire alarms) will help us maintain the current level of service and fulfil our duty to protect the public of North Wales, prevent against risk, and to respond as required to fires and road traffic incidents.
“In many respects the public will not notice a change - as we will still respond to some AFA actuations.
 What will change is that we will only mobilise where we have confirmation or a genuine suspicion of a fire, which will avoid tying up our resources and preventing them from being available for real emergencies.” refDP