Wirral C onsultation

1. WirralConsultation Proposed West Wirral station merger

2. Agenda • Introduction – consultation process • Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority (FRA) statutory duties • Merseyside FRA financial challenge • Budget decisions • Mergers • Station merger proposal • Questions

3. Consultation process • Public meetings, deliberative forums, stakeholder forums • Presentation • Questions • Newsletter • Survey

4. Fire and Rescue Service Act 2004 • Section 7 – statutory duty to respond to fires • Section 8 – statutory duty to respond to Road Traffic Collisions (RTC’s) • Section 9 – statutory duty to respond to Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Conventional Explosive (CBRNE), Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) and Serious Transport incidents • Section 11 – power to respond to any incident where a person or animal may die, be injured or become ill

5. Fire and Rescue National Framework • Secretary of State is required to produce a Fire and Rescue National Framework “Each FRA must produce an IRMP that identifies and assesses all foreseeable fire and rescue related risks that could affect its community, including those of a cross border, multi-authority and/or national nature. The plan must have regard to the Community Risk Register produced by the Local Resilience Forum and any other risk analysis as appropriate” “The FRA must hold their CFO to account for the delivery of the fire and rescue service”

6. MFRA financial challenge • Merseyside has faced significant financial challenges since 2004 • Since 2010 Merseyside FRA has seen a 35% Government grant reduction – savings of £20m • 70% of Authority income from grant, remainder from council tax precept • Government has limited council tax precept rises at 2% • Grant cuts require further £6.3 million saving in 2015/16 – the highest reduction in a single year • Merseyside is third most expensive FRA by grant and fifth overall per head of population

7. Support Services savings • Non-operational savings assumed to deliver £2.9m • Includes the loss of more than 40 non uniformed posts and pay restraint to continue for a further two years • This is in addition to 90 non uniformed posts lost in last round of cuts • Compulsory redundancy may not be avoided • Significant impact on organisational capacity to deliver structural changes and maintain existing service

8. Operational Response savings • £3.4 million assumed from operational response – fire stations • Reduction of 88 firefighter and senior manager posts through retirement • 26 stations down to 22 • 28 fire appliances • Appliances will be crewed wholetime (24) and wholetime retained (4) • May need to recruit community retained firefighters to maximise operational flexibility and resilience

9. Savings options • Engagement forums held in 2014 considered a range of options for delivering savings: • Station mergers • Outright station closures • Low Level of Activity and Risk (LLAR) crewing system • Day crewing • Day only crewing • Community retained firefighters

10. Station mergers • Station mergers recognised as delivering the least negative impactive by some margin • Three possible mergers identified to date: • Huyton/Whiston at Prescot (approved 2nd October 2014) • Upton/West Kirby at West Wirral • Eccleston/St Helens at St Helens Town Centre • In Liverpool proposal was the outright closure of Allerton – approved on 26th February 2015

11. Station mergers • All mergers/closures subject to consultation process and individual reports will go back to Authority • The Authority has secured capital funding from DCLG for the Knowsley, Wirral and St Helens mergers programme • Balance will be met from reserves • Mergers will take two years to deliver • More outright closures in Liverpool, Wirral and Sefton are likely in the future

12. Wirral merger option • The optimum location is around the mid point between Upton and West Kirby station areas – all Green Belt land • Only operationally viable non Green Belt site without planning restrictions was Greasby Library • Saughall Massie Road site is in Wirral ownership • CFO has written to Wirral to request transfer of ownership • Approaches made to other land owners in the mid point area

13. Wirral merger option • Move to one station would release significant permanent savings • 22 wholetime firefighter posts realises £864,000 permanent saving – achieved through retirements • The sites at West Kirby and Upton would be sold • Grant contribution from DCLG • Balance met from reserves so no increase in debt repayment • Alternative to merger is the outright closure of West Kirby • West Kirby’s appliance will be crewed WT retained prior to completion of any new build (2016)

14. Wirral merger option • WT rescue pump at currently at Upton and West Kirby • 24 Firefighters at each station (48 in total) • New station would have 24 Firefighters crewing a WT rescue pump and a WT retained rescue pump on rota days

15. Incident data • Over the last ten years incidents across Merseyside have reduced by 55% - 18,428 less incidents • Upton has seen a fall of 47.5% (1,128 incidents attended during 2004/5 to 592 during 2013/14) • West Kirby has seen a reduction of 24.1% (from 290 incidents attended during 2004/5 to 220 during 2013/14) • 2 accidental fire deaths and 1 RTC fatality on the Upton station area over the last 5 years (6 other fatalities) • 1 accidental fire death and 1 RTC fatality on the West Kirby station area over the last 5 years (3 other fatalities)

16. Response implications • Current mean average response time on the West Kirby station area is 5 minutes 24 seconds • Current mean average response time on the Upton station area is 4 minutes 34 seconds • Significantly quicker than MFRA 10 minute response standard and national mean average response time of 7 minutes 24 seconds (dwelling fires only) • The mean average response time to the West Kirby station area from Upton following an outright closure would be 8 minutes 43 seconds – with longer actual run times to Hoylake • Parts of the West Kirby station area cannot be reached from Upton within 10 minutes

17. Saughall Massie Road run times • Mean average run time to incidents on Upton station area of 5 minutes 3 seconds compared to current 4 minutes 34 seconds from Upton • Mean average run times to incidents on West Kirby station area of 6 minutes 38 seconds compared to current 5 minutes 24 seconds from West Kirby • Overall mean average run times of 5 minutes 41 seconds to combined station area • Mean average run times to the West Kirby station area from Upton is 8 minutes 43 seconds

18. Do response times matter?

19. Existing station areas

20. Saughall Massie Road

21. Saughall Massie Road

22. New build fire station

23. New build fire station

24. New build fire station

25. Summary • After over a decade of budget reductions the Authority can no longer employ sufficient numbers of Firefighters to keep all stations open • Station mergers result in the least impact on response times and therefore public safety • DCLG have awarded the Authority the full amount of capital bid for to fund 3 merger proposals • This consultation is concerned with operational response and not planning issues • Planning issues would be the subject of a separate consultation process should the Authority decide to pursue the merger option

26. Questions ?