Fire service shake-up could see Kidderminster lose fire engine and pump

A report is due to be put before the Hereford & Worcester Fire Authority during a meeting on Tuesday seeking permission to consult on the proposed changes.

Under the proposals, Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (HWFRS) would remove eight fire engines from eight separate fire stations which have multiple pumps – including one from Wyre Forest Station in Kidderminster which currently has four.

The Wyre Forest emergency services hub serves the areas of Bewdley, Stourport and Kidderminster, with a combined population of around 100,000.

Other stations where fire engines would be removed are in Redditch, Hereford, Worcester, Bromyard, Malvern, Leominster and Droitwich.

The plans also involve changing the third fire engine at the Wyre Forest site to 'night only-cover'.

On-call firefighters – those not based at the fire station but who live or work close by – would also be allowed up to eight minutes to get to the station in Kidderminster, instead of the current six, with the service stating this would help with future recruitment.

The report says: "This resource review has been undertaken to understand and assure the fire authority, stakeholders, and the community that the authority is making the best use of the available resources and funding to provide the most effective service possible.

"The authority currently deploys 41 fire engines across 25 fire stations in different ways.

"All 25 of the authority’s fire stations have at least one fire engine that is crewed by on-call firefighters.

"Of these, 17 fire stations within the two counties are solely crewed by on-call firefighters. The eight busier fire stations are in the larger towns and cities and currently have a mix of fire engines crewed by both wholetime and on-call firefighters, where the wholetime fire engine is normally the first to be deployed.

"The first fire engine at each location is used the most.

"This review does not propose to close any fire station or remove or reduce any first fire engine at any location. These proposals would mean that in some locations the first fire engine would have increased crewing, resilience, and faster response times."

The authority said it wants to rebalance resources to improve resilience, crewing levels and availability on some of the busier fire engines and enhance its prevention activity in the community.

The shake-up would generate potential savings of £981,000 but the plans state the cash would be reinvested into providing more full-time (wholetime) firefighters at some stations, who would be immediately available and on duty during the day and night.

Some of the busiest fire engines that are routinely crewed with four firefighters would be crewed by five firefighters instead.

The review found that the eight fire engines affected attend around 410 incidents each year, most often as a supporting fire engine.

The fire service says it is "not envisaged that overall engine availability and response times, or overall resilience levels for larger incidents will be affected in any material way" by the removal of the eight fire engines.

If approval is given, it is expected a consultation with public and staff will run from January to March.

Recommendations would then be prepared before a decision is made in June next year.