The Truth -Every Second Counts !

 

 

Above is a video by London FBU which clearly demonstrates that what politicians

SAY and what they DO

are two different things.

 REMEMBER - we, the public working together with the Fire Brigades Union

CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

In 2011 WYFRS agreed to close 10 Fire Stations and bragged about getting
1750 hits on their website.

In 2012 working in partnership the public and FBU saved 3 stations from closure and modified the fire authority's plans dramatically.  This blog in 3 months received 41,000 hits and to date has clocked up over 100,000 views which proves to us

People can make a difference
 if they work together !

Does Charity Begin at Home ?

We here at FCCL  enjoy surfing the web, 

working in IT it's sort of mandatory! 

&

 amongst all the spam and junk mail 

we do occasionally discover 

And whilst looking at the What Do They Know website, whilst incidentally checking our own FOI on water charges and allotments (its a long story - don't ask) we found a Freedom of Information Request to West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue  asking for information about charity events. Now we have once been sent information about this ourselves so we read the request with  interest. We also know that WYFRS have  on occasion fallen foul of the Information Commissioners Office and we wrote about it here  way back in October 2012. 

Here is the FOI request we found .......

Dear West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service,

Please supply me with all information (times, dates and locations)

regarding charity or fund raising events where on duty Fire

Fighters were allowed to participate in the last 3 years. Eg. car

washing events, transporting equipment for such events as boxing

tournaments. I would like to be informed also of the name/s of

supervisory officers and rank who gave permission for this to take

place and how this time was recorded on the SAP system. I would

also like to see any policy where this is allowed to happen.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Hamilton Formerly Stn O 2714 of Gipton Fire Station

Well Mark,as we have said we have been told of times when crews have been sent from one area to cover crews carwashing in another.  And to be honest until this week I considered it on line suicide to blog about it. 

                                    BUT  

after careful consideration, in particular as private companies are being threatened with a  charge of £350 an hour  per fire engine and crew for false alarm calls, it seems pretty rich to "donate" crews and time to cover whilst charity events take place. 

I will watch the FOI with interest as FCCL was told specifically of Gipton being sent to cover whilst Wetherby washed cars a few months ago.   

That's a very high risk station covering for a 

medium risk one.

FCCL has the greatest respect for the Firefighters Charity, we know you do amazing work  for fire-fighters and their families

BUT 

All voluntary organisations are feeling the pinch and trade unions (and we know this includes the Fire Brigades Union) are having their right to facility time questioned. I think Mark has asked the right question at the right time.

Perhaps it is time for WYFRS managers to rein in the use of public facilities for charitable activities. 

If you would like to donate to the Firefighters Charity or learn more about their activities, please click here for further details.  

Or they are just a click away on Face Book

Whoops and we almost forgot - the full FOI is available here to read.

80,000 - 1751 = 798249

And i would just love to explain who the FCCL team is....................... but not half as much as WYFRS would love to know who they are, lol !

Who is Burning Your Money ?

I would be the first to admit i can leave substantially more of the Taxpayers Alliance   than I can take.

But we have on couple of occasions been rather taken with what they have posted on their website. FCCL was dropped a hint to look at their articles on the Chief Fire Officers Association, and what an interesting read it is! The full article is available here 

FCCL strongly  advises everybody regardless of the work they do to join (and indeed become involved and active in ) A TRADE UNION. Unions can provide you with many benefits, from cheaper insurance to legal cover for employment issues should  you ever need it. However being in a union is not free, you pay a subscription, usually monthly to give you the cover you need. Most unions subs are on a sliding scale depending on how much you earn.  Below are the 2013 rates for the Fire Brigades Union (should you need more information it's here 

	WHOLETIME		JOB SHARE		RETAINED		VOLUNTEER		JUNIOR FIREFIGHTER
	WEEKLY	MONTHLY	WEEKLY	MONTHLY	WEEKLY	MONTHLY	WEEKLY	MONTHLY	WEEKLY	MONTHLY
TRADE	£5.30	£22.97	£2.65	£11.49	£1.75	£7.58	£0.35	£1.53	£1.75	£7.58
POLITICAL	£0.16	£0.69	£0.16	£0.69	£0.16	£0.69	£0.16	£0.69	-	-
AIF	£0.76	£3.29	£0.76	£3.29	£0.76	£3.29	£0.76	£3.29	£0.76	£3.29
TOTAL	£6.22	£26.95	£3.57	£15.47	£2.67	£11.56	£1.27	£5.51	£2.51	£10.87

So a "bog standard " fire fighters pays approx £323 a year  from their wages to enjoy the many benefits of being a member of the FBU.

So  if a firefighter on an average salary of £28,500 a year pays £323  (doing some big sums ) 

this means a Chief Fire Officer should pay in the region of  £1,800  per year fees to the CFOA

BUT 

GUESS 

                      WHAT ???

                         

    THEY PAY NOTHING AT ALL 

Because WE THE TAX PAYER PAY THEM 

Brigade	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	Total
West Yorkshire	£4,698.75	£13,638.63	£14,652.00	£32,989.38
South Yorkshire	£17,909.74	£22,907.00	£16,610.15	£57,426.89

And to quote the taxpayers alliance 

The name suggests this is an organisation paid for by those at the top of the fire service. As I pointed out, this is far from the truth. It is taxpayers that prop-up the CFOA as it gets subscriptions from fire authorities across the country. Those same fire authorities even pay for the individual subscriptions of well paid senior fire officers.

We think that WYFRS and SYFRS  should take a stand and refuse to pay the subscriptions of the Chief Officer.  The London Fire Brigade agree with us.Last year Ron Dobson the London Fire Commissioner said this

At a time when public sector organisations are being challenged to make huge savings across the board, we believe this increase shows a lack of empathy with the financial situation facing all the fire and rescue services that CFOA is there to support.

“In the current economic climate we believe they should be leading the way, rather than simply passing on the cost of savings that we are all being asked to make.

We think that we the tax payers of Yorkshire should start to lobby to stop these payments to people who  already get very high salaries  BUT  it is much worse, here on the front page of the CFOA is the launch of Bluewatch !

The CFOA  are actually in partnership  with a private company  CAPITA

 Capita plc has today announced the launch of Blue Watch, a new fire and home safety scheme, supported by the UK’s fire and rescue services (FRS). Capita has signed a seven year contract, with an option to extend for a further three years, with CFOA Services Ltd (CSL) - a trading company of the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) - to deliver the scheme.

The full press release is available here  (but you might have to login as a guest on the CFOA site) 


Now call me thick  but aren't we being constantly told that firefighters workload is reducing?  

That we don't need as many of them ?  

Yet our very own Fire Chiefs are using OUR MONEY  to promote a private venture and reading Paul Fullers  (CFOA Services Ltd (CSL) chair) which is a trading company of the Chief Fire Officers Association)  validation of the programme makes me  feel extremely sick !

Paul Fuller, CSL chair, said: “As a serving fire chief, I am proud of the work fire and rescue services across the UK have done to drive down death and injury, but more can always be done. Too many lives are still lost and injuries caused, which is why we have set up Blue Watch. Using our experience, knowledge and professionalism we will help landlords make their properties safer from the risks of fire and carbon monoxide. It’s all about providing the best possible advice and support, as well as top quality safety products. We are looking forward to working with Capita in bringing a fresh approach to fire and CO safety, which we hope will reduce the number of people affected by fire and CO.”

I THINK IT IS TIME TO CALL OUR FIRE CHIEFS TO ACCOUNT !

A FRESH APPROACH TO FIRE SAFETY  - ----It is

P R I V A T I S A T I O N 

(and not even by the back door) 

Its FBU's to Us.

We have  said if we had even a small fire we would prefer 

And when it comes to telling the truth about response times and incidents  we prefer 

Which is why  we support the Fire Brigades Union in the sterling work they do in regard to the Anti Cuts Agenda all over  the country, even though we concentrate our efforts in the West Yorkshire Region.   

Remember,  the Chief Fire Officer Simon Pilling was proven by 

his own data we FOI'd  to have never attended an incident in 2011 /12! 

We wrote about  it way back in December 2012  here   

We cant help but wonder if any members of the FBU who are operational can say that  they never attended an incident in an entire year (whilst getting a tax free fancy car ! )

Occasionally  we have felt like packing in and giving up, but we haven't; opposing  cuts in provision is on occasions like being a goldfish that is repeatedly thrown into a tank of piranhas.   

And WHY ?

Simple - because the FBU is 

Choose Life - choose an experienced fire fighters word and their operational experience over a spreadsheet jockeys word EVERY TIME 

To contact the FBU - please see our page 

HERE 

Riots over Cuts in Fire and Rescue Provision

Sadly today we heard of actual riots (including the throwing of petrol bombs) due to the proposed privatisation of a Fire Station. 

Although we at FCCL may sometimes sail close to the wind in our vocal opposition of cuts in fire service provision, actions such as these WE CANNOT CONDONE . 

Therefore to read  an account of what happened please click


  HERE

And just a note to let you know that in  Leeds City Centre on April 20th  there is a protest in regard to the Bedroom Tax which will come into force on April 1st. We hope it will be a well organised event where everybody  exercises their democratic right to protest. If you need more information regarding how the bedroom tax may affect you and your family please click here to link to the HOOH site

60,000 and counting

Over the weekend FCCL tipped the 60,000 hits mark. 

Not bad for a little blog site that aimed to get 1,751 hits .....