Plans to go out to consultation
Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service could start charging businesses for false alarm callouts as part of new plans on the way the service is run.
The fire service is under pressure to change the way it delivers services due to cuts in funding, with the local council likely to have to find a further £130m in cuts by 2018/19. In response, the fire service has produced a summary of seven key changes to the way it operates which have now gone out to public consultation.
This includes a ‘cost recovery process’ for businesses with automatic fire alarms which send unwanted signals.
The service states in its summary: “Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue has been taking steps to address this for many years which has helped to reduce the number of false alarms attended. However, the figure remains relatively high and has started to rise again.
“We recognise that most businesses take the management of their premises seriously. It is those which impose a significant burden on the fire service through repeated false alarms that this proposal aims to deter.”
Another proposal mooted by the service is the removal of a Rescue Support Unit to spread the coverage around the county. The service attributes this to ‘the utilisation rate and the fact that some of the specialist equipment on the RSU is now available on frontline fire engines’.
And there are also plans to continue and to expand the Joint Ambulance Conveyance Project (JACP), a pilot scheme in conjunction with the local ambulance service to improve patient care through enhanced ambulance provision.
You can read more about the consultation here.
Original sources: Lincolnshire County Council | ITV