Fire Service (Halesowen and Rowley Regis)

James Morris Excerpts

Wednesday 9th November 2011 Westminster Hall

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Riordan. I thank the Minister for being here to listen and respond to the debate, and for being so open and accessible when I have contacted him about this issue.

I applied for this important debate because, unless the Minister is able to come to our aid or the West Midlands fire and rescue authority can be persuaded to reject the proposals put to it by the West Midlands fire service, the fire service in my constituency is threatened with extremely deep cuts. I will offer a brief summary of how we got to this point.

In 2008, the West Midlands fire service conducted a comprehensive review of its operations to improve its effectiveness and to ensure that resources were best deployed to maximise the level of fire cover across the county. The review recommended that a number of fire stations should be merged, while maintaining the same number of fire engines and crews across the county, to offer a more effective service. Among its proposals, the review recommended that the two fire stations located in my constituency, Halesowen and Cradley Heath, should be merged with a new fire station built at a suitable location between the two towns.

The proposals were put out for consultation at the end of 2008, and a large number of responses were received from different sections of the community. Despite strong opposition to the proposals to replace the two existing fire stations with a new fire station, including a strong campaign mounted by the Fire Brigades Union and submissions from Labour-run Sandwell council, the fire service decided to press ahead with the proposal and the merger was agreed by the fire authority in February 2009.

Although the fire service did not change its plans to merge the two fire stations, it did agree to modify its proposal in one important way following the consultation exercise. The review originally proposed that instead of having one 24-hour pump located at each of the two fire stations, the newly merged fire station should have one 24-hour pump and one 12-hour pump. Following the consultation, that proposal was changed and it was agreed that there should be two 24-hour pumps at the new fire station. That proposal was agreed by the fire authority in February 2009.

After the fire authority’s decision, not much happened. In fact, with regard to the two fire stations in my constituency, nothing happened at all. While the review’s proposals were implemented in other parts of the west midlands, the fire stations in Halesowen and Cradley Heath continued to operate as before. To all intents and purposes, it appeared that the proposal had at the very least been put on the back burner. The first indication that the plans might be back on the table came when the chief fire officer wrote to me last December to lobby me on the local government finance settlement. He said:

“I will do everything possible in order not to close your local fire stations—but at this level of cuts I see some closures as an inevitability.”

The first time that the proposal was publicly resurrected was this summer, when the West Midlands fire service announced that it would press ahead with the decision to merge the two fire stations. However, when that was formally announced, it became clear that the fire service intended to implement only parts of the decision agreed in February 2009. Whereas the 2009 decision explicitly stated that the two fire stations would be replaced by a new fire station that would be built between the two existing stations, the proposals that the fire service now intends to implement could see the fire stations replaced by a rented industrial unit somewhere in the area, or—as seems to be the favoured option—the merged fire station would actually just be Cradley Heath fire station.

I hope that you will not think that I am overly pedantic, Mrs Riordan, if I suggest that closing one fire station and moving the service it provides to another fire station is a very different proposition from building a new fire station to cover both areas and locating it between the two towns. Back in 2009, the fire authority accepted that distinction. In its response to the consultation, the fire authority dismissed suggestions that Cradley Heath could serve the whole area. It said:

“Cradley Heath fire station was built in 1942. It is a cramped old fashioned building with no training facilities and it has been the intention to replace the station for some years. There will be significant costs if the Authority attempts to maintain the station on the present site. The Authority believes that the risks in the areas covered by the existing Cradley Heath and Halesowen fire stations will be better served by having a combined new fire station located between the two existing sites.”

That is as true now as it was in February 2009.

While the physical presence of a fire station in a town is of enormous emotional importance to local residents, and having a fire station locally has significant practical benefits, I recognise that there is some truth in the argument used by the fire service that fire stations do not put out fires—firefighters do. That is why I am even more concerned that, having agreed to preserve two 24-hour pumps in 2009, West Midlands fire service is now proposing that that provision should be halved and the new—or perhaps not so new—merged fire station would have only a single pump to serve the area. That clearly has grave implications for the level of fire cover available in my constituency.

Unlike the 2008 review, the new proposals are not part of a comprehensive assessment of the needs of the county and how best to deploy resources to provide the best possible level of cover in all areas. This summer’s proposals would affect only Halesowen and Cradley Heath, thus reducing the service in my constituency. Clearly, like all services, the West Midlands fire service has had to bear a share of the savings needed to reduce the deficit that the Government inherited. Indeed, because the West Midlands fire service has set a much lower council tax precept than other parts of the country, the overall impact of the local government finance settlement is even greater in the West Midlands than in other metropolitan fire authorities. I urge the Minister to bear that in mind when considering the settlement for future years to ensure that metropolitan fire authorities in general—and the West Midlands in particular—are not forced to make deeper savings than can possibly be afforded without significant front-line cuts.

While there are significant financial pressures on the fire service, it seems that Halesowen and Cradley Heath are expected to carry a disproportionate share of the burden to produce the required savings. As I have said, my constituency is the only area in the county to face a reduction in the number of pumps through these proposals. As I explained earlier, the West Midlands fire authority recognised in 2009 that it was not appropriate to reduce the number of pumps covering the area from two to one and a half, yet the fire service is now proposing that, instead of sharing the burden across a number of stations, the number of pumps in my constituency should be cut from two to just one. It would seem to be basic common sense—something on which my constituents pride themselves—that either the decision to preserve two full-time pumps in 2009 was extraordinarily wasteful or, as local residents suspect, reducing cover to just one single pump represents a serious risk to the local community.

Although the fire service points to the relatively low number of call-outs from the two stations, the local community does not believe that those statistics tell the whole story. Halesowen fire station is close to junction 3 of the M5, and helps to cover call-outs to the motorway network. With the weekend’s tragic accident in Somerset, we saw again just how important it is that our motorways are properly covered by the fire service network.

Halesowen town is changing. The reduction in the number of incidents over recent years is partly the result of effective fire prevention, but is partly due, too, to a decline in the local manufacturing industry. New growth in the town is changing that, but although the new hotel, supermarkets, fast-food restaurants and petrol stations provide a vital boost for the local economy, there is no doubt that they represent a greater demand for the local fire service that did not exist when the review was conducted in 2008. It therefore seems folly on the part of West Midlands fire service to propose deep cuts to the service in Halesowen precisely when demand could be about to rise.

Although there was significant local disquiet about the 2009 decision, the case could at least be made that it was being done to improve the quality and efficiency of the service—my predecessor broadly accepted that argument. However, the new proposal to cut the number of fire stations and fire engines can only be seen as a reduction in service. There is a great deal of opposition to the proposals in my constituency, bringing together the unlikely alliance of a Conservative Member of Parliament, all local political parties and the Fire Brigades Union. The FBU held a well-supported rally in the town centre, and petitions against the proposals have collected more than 1,000 signatures.

Under the Local Government Act 2010 and the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, fire authorities, as best-value authorities—

--- Later in debate ---

On resuming—

[James Morris]

As I was saying, under the Local Government Act and the Fire and Rescue Services Act, fire authorities, as best value authorities, have a responsibility to consult the public effectively. They must also ensure that consultations comply with guidance from the Secretary of State. This week’s High Court decision on the Royal Brompton hospital serves as a reminder of the importance of ensuring that public consultations, particularly on service closures, are conducted effectively and fairly.

When the new proposals were announced in the summer, the West Midlands fire service said that as the decision to merge the fire stations had already been agreed, it was necessary to consult only on the staffing changes. The Minister has extensive experience of local government and knows how a competent consultation process should be conducted. It is questionable whether a three-year-old consultation exercise holds much value in the best of circumstances. However, it surely cannot be right to claim that a decision taken on the basis of a three-year-old consultation process remains valid, but then choose selectively to implement only parts of that decision. Either the 2009 decision should have been implemented in its entirety, or there should be a new, comprehensive review of the fire service’s operations, so that a proper judgment can be reached on how resources should be allocated in order that the service complies with its obligations under the national framework. Even the chief fire officer accepts that the consultation has “not been ideal”. But for parliamentary protocols, I would be tempted to use somewhat stronger words.

There is a real threat that unless the Minister can intervene or the fire authority recognises that the proposals before it have not been properly thought through, my constituents will find themselves with a much-reduced service that is radically different from anything on which they have been consulted and that represents a significant risk to the community.

To conclude, I shall ask the Minister three questions. First, can he provide detailed assurances that the process followed by the West Midlands fire service is consistent with its statutory obligations to consult and to minimise risk? Secondly, will he work with the Secretary of State to draw up clear best practice guidance for the minimum standards required of fire authorities’ consultation procedures? Finally, given the shortcomings in the way in which the fire service has consulted the public and other stakeholders—shortcomings recognised by the chief fire officer himself—does the Minister agree that the best course of action would be for the West Midlands fire service to withdraw its proposals, so that a full and comprehensive review can be conducted of how the service’s resources can best be deployed to provide the fire cover that my residents require?