Agenda item

RESOLVED (as amended):

1.         That Surrey Fire and Rescue Service trial the use of Initial Response Vehicles to prove safe systems of work under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, leading to a more flexible and efficient response model to Surrey residents.

2.         That a contract for Initial Response Vehicles be awarded in January 2017 to Rosenbauer UK Ltd for a two phase contract, consisting of an initial trial period with two vehicles with an option to extend for a further two years with up to an additional four vehicles, subject to the completion of a successful pilot.

3.         Cabinet confirms that recommendations 1 and 2 are subject to the provisional Local Government Settlement providing a significant response to the fundamental financial challenges facing the County Council.

4.         That the Leader will decide whether the condition in recommendation 3 has been met, in consultation with the Director of Finance and Chief Executive.

Reasons for Decisions:

Whilst the potential value for money from this approach is clear the county council is facing unprecedented financial pressures therefore it would not be sensible to agree additional expenditure without understanding the implications of the provisional Local Government Settlement.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Resident Experience Board]

The Cabinet Member for Localities and Community Wellbeing said that changes to how Surrey Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) responded to incidents needed to be implemented to achieve targets within the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP). Therefore, the service were proposing to trial the introduction of a different response method using Initial Response Vehicles (IRV) that can be sent to specified incident types in place of a traditional fire appliance.

However, he recognised the County Council’s financial pressures and proposed adding the following recommendations and reason:

3. Cabinet confirms that recommendations 1 and 2 are subject to the provisional Local Government Settlement providing a significant response to the fundamental financial challenges facing the County Council.

4. That the Leader will decide whether the condition in recommendation 3 has been met in consultation with the Director of Finance and Chief Executive.

Reason:

Whilst the potential value for money from this approach is clear the County Council is facing unprecedented financial pressures, therefore it would not be sensible to agree additional expenditure without understanding the implications of the provisional Local Government Settlement.

The Cabinet Associate for Community Safety Services said that this report was asking Cabinet to agree that the service trialled the use of IRVs and highlighted the potentially significant savings that could be achieved by replacing a traditional fire engine with an IRV.

RESOLVED (as amended):

1.         That Surrey Fire and Rescue Service trial the use of Initial Response Vehicles to prove safe systems of work under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, leading to a more flexible and efficient response model to Surrey residents.

2.         That a contract for Initial Response Vehicles be awarded in January 2017 to Rosenbauer UK Ltd for a two phase contract, consisting of an initial trial period with two vehicles with an option to extend for a further two years with up to an additional four vehicles, subject to the completion of a successful pilot.

3.         Cabinet confirms that recommendations 1 and 2 are subject to the provisional Local Government Settlement providing a significant response to the fundamental financial challenges facing the County Council.

4.         That the Leader will decide whether the condition in recommendation 3 has been met in consultation with the Director of Finance and Chief Executive.

Reasons for Decisions:

Whilst the potential value for money from this approach is clear the County Council is facing unprecedented financial pressures, therefore it would not be sensible to agree additional expenditure without understanding the implications of the provisional Local Government Settlement.