North Yorkshire’s chief fire officer has defended a policy to charge businesses which repeatedly trigger false alarm call-outs.
Jonathan Dyson told a meeting of North Yorkshire and York’s police, fire and crime panel the ultimate goal of charging for false call-outs was to protect the cash-strapped service’s resources for incidents where people’s lives were at risk.
The meeting heard automatic fire alarms were the predominant call-out for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and the brigade’s policies had always included the option to charge, but it had made that policy clearer recently in its Risk and Resource Model 2022-2025 as it was “starting to see repeat offenders”.
In the 12 months to March 2022, the service was called to nearly 7,600 incidents, of which nearly half were false alarms.
A study of Home Office data in 2021 found only 2% of confirmed incidents from automatic fire alarms were a result of an actual fire.
It found some 90% of false alarms were due to “false apparatus”, with two per cent being deemed as malicious.
Automatic fire alarms send a signal directly to fire services to respond to, but due to the volume of false call-outs some fire and rescue services now also require a confirmed fire before responding.
The meeting heard businesses in North Yorkshire and York whose fire alarms triggered four false call-out a year would be liable for a charge under the service’s policy.
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North Yorkshire councillor Rich Maw questioned whether the policy was “more of a headline rather than actually something that will deter”.
The meeting heard the policy was designed to protect the service’s appliances and firefighters, to ensure time for training, and “to respond to true life incidents”.
Mr Dyson said the service went to great lengths to ensure it was supporting businesses, and only when it was “absolutely required” would the service start charging for false call-outs.
He added while charging had been proven to be effective in energising managers in places such as universities to tackle people who triggered alarms irresponsibly, he did not anticipate the North Yorkshire service having to resort to charging on a consistent or regular basis.
However, Mr Dyson said:
North Yorkshire fire chief admits ‘work to do’ following damning report“The problem being of course, to some companies it is cheaper to pay any charge that we incur on them than making the responsible persons do their job or the changes that are required.”
The chief fire officer at North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service has admitted there’s “work to do” following the publication of a highly critical report that questioned the service’s ability to respond to fires.
The report was published last week by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services and it graded North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service following an inspection last year.
It found the service had deteriorated in most areas since its last full inspection in 2018/19.
The report said the organisation’s overall effectiveness “requires improvement” and more needs to be done to keep people safe and secure.
The inspection found that the number of available fire engines sometimes falls to below minimum levels.
It also said the way the service manages its finances is “inadequate” due to the “fragility” of the budget. It described the overall financial situation as “precarious”.
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While the report was largely critical of the service provided to the public, it did praise the organisation for its fire prevention work and how it responds to major incidents.
Chief fire officer, Jonathan Dyson, responded to the report at a public accountability meeting last week for the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.
He said progress has been made since the inspection took place and tried to reassure the public that it is able to respond to incidents.
Mr Dyson said:
“We’ve work to do. There’s a reflection that it’s a bad report but the service has made improvements.
“We have a back to basics approach to ensure we are building an organisation from the foundations up. We provide competent fire fighters and a competent response and we’ll always deliver at incidents whenever the public needs us.”
Mr Dyson was appointed by Conservative Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe in May 2022, which was after the inspection took place.
Commissioner Metcalfe told the meeting:
Reduction in Harrogate fire engines to begin next year“I’ve appointed a new senior leadership team and I’ve worked with the chief fire officer to implement a rigorous and ongoing programme of improvement to support this process and I will continue to hold the service to account. I am confident that marked improvements have already been made.
“I would like to thank staff and firefighters who continue to make communities safe and they have my full support to improve the service going forward.”
The reduction in the number of fire engines crewed overnight in Harrogate looks set to be implemented next year.
Zoë Metcalfe, the Conservative North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, today published her blueprint on how fire resources will be deployed over the next three years.
Her Risk and Resource Model includes greater investment on fire prevention and rural on-call stations. But full-time urban fire stations in Harrogate and Scarborough will see the number of appliances staffed between 10pm and 9am reduced from two to one.
They will, however, get two emergency rescue fire engines at other times, when most fires occur, rather than the current one emergency vehicle and one less well equipped tactical response vehicle.
The nighttime reduction has been criticised by unions and councillors for putting lives at risk.
But today’s report, which was published after a 12-week summer consultation, provides some consolation. It says:
“We will adjust the night staffing proposals at Harrogate and Scarborough to provide added resilience by adding an additional firefighter.”
‘Low number of incidents’
The report reveals the county’s fire and rescue service received £38.2 million funding 2022/23, of which £23.4 millions came from council taxpayers.
Two-thirds of fire stations are on-call stations where firefighters respond to a pager from home or from their work. Ripon, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Masham, Lofthouse and Summerbridge have on-call stations in the Harrogate district, although Ripon has a full-time crew during the day.
Fire station locations in North Yorkshire. Pic: North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner
The report says:
“Because many people do not live and work in the same community anymore, many of our on-call stations struggle to have enough firefighters available to respond, especially during the day when demand is highest.”
It also says “many of our fire engines attend a relatively low number of incidents”. In the year to March, 31 2022, firefighters attended 7,594 incidents, of which 1,742 were fires, 2,485 incidents classed as ‘special services’ and 3,367 false alarms.
‘Reduce the need for an emergency response’
The report says the “increased focus on prevention aims to address and reduce risk and the need for an emergency response”.
The joint foreword by Ms Metcalfe and chief fire officer Jonathan Dyson says:
“We are a predominantly rural service where most of our stations are crewed by on-call firefighters. It is increasingly challenging to recruit and retain staff to keep our rural fire engines available to respond to emergencies. We intend to modernise and invest in our on-call service model to ensure it is sustainable and fit for the future and ultimately improve fire engine availability.
The report says the consultation revealed more support in favour of the proposals than against, but adds:
“The extent of disagreement was greater for proposed changes to the provision of response resource (Huntington, Harrogate and Scarborough).”
Read more:
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- Fire Brigades Union ‘seriously concerned’ over cuts to Harrogate service