This financial year (2023/24) is the final year of Cheshire Fire Authority’s current Integrated Risk Management Plan, a four-year strategy that set out objectives to improve the effectiveness of Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, address key fire and emergency-related risks and keep communities safe.
The Authority must now start to develop its strategy for the next four years (2024-28). For the first time, this will be known as a Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP). The CRMP will ensure the Service continues to develop the skills of its people and invests in vehicles and resources to enable it to respond to emergencies and reduce risks in the face of changes in society, technology and the environment. These improvements must be affordable.
In the autumn and winter of 2023/24, Cheshire Fire Authority will be consulting on proposals for the new CRMP. The consultation will be publicised widely to ensure everyone has the opportunity to have their say.
Ahead of the formal consultation, a programme of engagement will take place to understand what people expect of their fire and rescue service. The feedback received throughout this engagement will be considered in the development of formal proposals which will be subject to consultation later in the year.
As part of this engagement work, a survey has been developed which seeks your views on a range of topics, including:
The guiding principles we are aiming to adopt in the development of our CRMP
The guiding principles outline how we intend to develop our CRMP over the coming months.
Developing our future response standard
Our response standard is our benchmark to measure how long it takes us to response to emergencies and informs how we arrange our fire cover to meet this standard. We would like your views on how we should develop this in the future.
Improving our fire cover model
We operate 35 fire engines across Cheshire, which are crewed in different ways according to local risk and demand. Areas of higher risk and activity are crewed with wholetime fire engines (where the engine is available 24/7), while areas of low risk and activity are crewed with on-call fire engines (where firefighters live or work nearby and respond in the event of an emergency call).
We are seeking your views on how we could improve our fire cover model across Cheshire.
Understanding what activities you think we should be prioritising.
We undertake various activities, from our statutory duties (e.g. responding to fires and road traffic collisions, providing fire safety advice and enforcing fire safety laws), to non-statutory emergency response (e.g. water rescue and animal rescue) and activity within our community to promote safety.
We would like to know which of the services we provide are the most important to you.
The survey will be open until Friday 14 July, so please have your say before then.
You can access the survey using the link below:
For further information and advice on this survey and our CRMP, please email consultation@cheshirefire.gov.uk, write to FREEPOST CHESHIRE FIRE CONSULTATION or call 01606 868700.