Agenda item

That the following proposals be proposed:

·         Officers should identify and deliver a permanent site for a single fire engine station within a three miles radius of Burgh Heath, to serve the north of Reigate and Banstead.

·         Until such time as a permanent site is available, to relocate the second fire engine from Epsom to a temporary fire station within the same geographical area, to deliver improvements against the Surrey Response Standard.

·         Authority be delegated to the Interim Strategic Director for Adult Social Care, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Community Services, to assess the options to relocate the second fire engine from Epsom and to identify an available location which meets the requirements identified in this report.

Reasons for Decisions:

The relocation of a fire engine into the proposed area will secure improvements against the county wide Surrey response standard. Whilst it may not be the optimal location this still delivers improvements against the response standard to meet the operational imperative that is compounded by the reduction in the provision of fire cover due to the temporary removal by London Fire Brigade of Purley’s fire appliance. The fire station is being refurbished from summer 2014 and the fire engine is being moved further away to Mitcham which will have a detrimental impact on response times when requests are made by SFRS under section 13 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004.

It provides an opportunity to work with Blue light partners and other agencies to collocate to further integrate service provision and share information to generate efficiencies through shared spaces and networking.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Communities Select Committee]

The Cabinet Member for Community Services invited the Cabinet Associate for Fire and Rescue Services to introduce the report. She began by saying that the changes to fire deployment in Reigate and Banstead would have some impact on Epsom and Ewell.

She reminded Cabinet that, in March 2013, they had approved Surrey Fire and Rescue Service’s (SFRS) proposal to operate a chain of single fire engine stations running through the boroughs of Epsom and Ewell (E&E) and Reigate and Banstead (R&B).

Part of the plan was to create a new fire station within the Burgh Heath area. However, no site has been found in this area and therefore Cabinet was being asked to approve the provision of a new fire station within a wider area (a three mile radius) around Burgh Heath.   Until a permanent site is identified SFRS intend to relocate to a temporary location within the same area, which would still deliver an improvement in the response standard. This is in order to enable SFRS to meet its response targets, which have become an operational imperative due to a reduction in the reliability of the fire cover in that part of the County due in part to London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority closing Purley Fire Station for a period of 18-24 months from summer 2014.

She also drew attention to paragraph 34 of the report, which stated that there would be continued engagement with the relevant committee in Epsom & Ewell and Reigate & Banstead. Referring to the Equalities Impact Assessment and the impact of the proposals on people with protected characteristics, she confirmed that modelling had predicted slightly longer response times but they were still within the Surrey Response Standard.

Finally, she tabled a small amendment to recommendation (3), inserting ‘interim’ before Strategic Director Adult Social Care and adding in, ‘in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Community Services’.

RESOLVED (as amended):

That the following proposals be proposed:

·         Officers should identify and deliver a permanent site for a single fire engine station within a three miles radius of Burgh Heath, to serve the north of Reigate and Banstead.

·         Until such time as a permanent site is available, to relocate the second fire engine from Epsom to a temporary fire station within the same geographical area, to deliver improvements against the Surrey Response Standard.

·         Authority be delegated to the Interim Strategic Director for Adult Social Care, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Community Services, to assess the options to relocate the second fire engine from Epsom and to identify an available location which meets the requirements identified in this report.

Reasons for Decisions:

The relocation of a fire engine into the proposed area will secure improvements against the county wide Surrey response standard. Whilst it may not be the optimal location this still delivers improvements against the response standard to meet the operational imperative that is compounded by the reduction in the provision of fire cover due to the temporary removal by London Fire Brigade of Purley’s fire appliance. The fire station is being refurbished from summer 2014 and the fire engine is being moved further away to Mitcham which will have a detrimental impact on response times when requests are made by SFRS under section 13 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004.

It provides an opportunity to work with Blue light partners and other agencies to collocate to further integrate service provision and share information to generate efficiencies through shared spaces and networking.