Money for Nothing, but you Quit for free!

Living your life in the public domain is for  some people  a way of life. Many newspapers and magazines thrive because members of the public wish to read lots of mindless and facile stuff about "celebrities"  (Although to be fair Dr's surgeries would be dead boring without reading materials like that, even if they are several years out of date.)

Let's be clear, we aren't averse to a spot of gossip, to use the appropriate cliché  "there's no smoke without fire"  There has been a certain dismissal recently, which in our opinion (with only a few selective titbits at our disposal) should have most definitely resulted in one of these

                  To claim  or not to claim, that is the question!

But ended in this .........

 

 

However we understand that particular amount, although totalling  more that a chief fire officer gets (we won't say earn)  in a week is small fry compared to the whopping £42,000 that Jim Andrews, the Chair of South Yorkshire happily handed over to several senior staff during a period of perfectly legal industrial action by the Fire Brigades Union. We could rabbit on about the who, what and where but this has had a significant amount of coverage in the press.  Bottom line is these people were contracted to work whatever hours were required of them and had no provision for overtime payments in their contracts. If do you fancy having a read at the shameful episode this article gives a good explanation of why we and many other people are campaigning for Cllr Andrews and CFO Courtney to resign.  

 

But lets put all that aside and take a more in depth view of the man who made the decision to pay the "overtime" - Cllr James Gregory Andrews, BEM If you click on his name it will take you to his declaration of pecuniary interests, we are interested in particular his declaration under para 2d - Body whose principle purpose is to influence public opinion or policy. 

 

 

A spot of amateur handwriting analysis clearly shows he is much fonder of the LABOUR PARTY than UNITE the union, in which union doesn't warrant the use of uppercase and sort of trails off into the distance, but it is UNITE and Cllr Andrews membership of it that made us howl with laughter - the man is in our opinion clearly a hypocrite of the highest order.

 

Let us show you our reasoning below

 

 

UNITE are very clear on the subject of FOI's - in fact they wrote a response to the Independent Commission for FOI's call for evidence (20 Nov 2015)

  

Unless you are a Labour chair of South Yorkshire FRS !!!!

So come on Jim you know you want to resign really !

 

It seems bizarre that a councillor who publicly allies himself to the biggest Trades Union in the country would covertly give thousands in payments to management to basically break a lawful strike !

 

When an audit revealed -

 

...... the payments, which officers received for working during strikes over the last two years, were withheld from public scrutiny because they were considered too “sensitive”.

and that FOI approving UNITE Union man Cllr Jim Andrews

 PERSONALLY APPROVED THE SECRET PAYMENTS

 

Now we do know he isn't a fan of democracy as he recently blocked a proposal to have a vote of confidence in......yes you guessed it

 

HIMSELF.... 

 

And from the horse's mouth Neill Carbutt, Brigade Secretary of the South Yorks FBU

 

"He stopped a question and statement from us (the FBU) on our position of no confidence in him and chief... He stopped Barnsley trade council speaking, Yorkshire post and a member of public. Apparently he could as he's the chair?"

Is this a man that UNITE the UNION wish to have in their ranks as a Brother ?

 

A man who conceals payments, refuses to allow perfectly reasonable questions at PUBLIC meetings, declines questions from the legitimate press  (gawd knows what they all get up to in private!)

 

 

 

But for now it appears Cllr Andrews is wearing a coat made from

 

 

As things sure as hell aren't sticking to him......

 

But we reckon that might not be the answer, personally we consider the fact that shortly after he very kindly gave Courtney and Co extra money he was awarded the BRITISH EMPIRE MEDAL and if you read the announcement it is very specific

 

Councillor James Gregory ANDREWS

Deputy Leader, Barnsley Metropolitan Council and Chairman,

 South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority.

 

For services to Local Government.

 

 

It was awarded in the

New Years Honours of 2015 !!! 

 

It's not us is it?

 

Do you also smell a

 

 

 

To date Cllr Andrat (whoops sorry,  we mean Andrews) has apologised but steadfastly refuses to resign as does CFO Courtney.

We think this is the ultimate insult to the FBU and members of the public

 

 

WHY????

 

 

 

Tomorrow we will write more regarding the Seven Principles of Public Life  something else that appears to have disappeared without trace recently.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 



 

Happy Birthday to Us !

It is an important day for us here at FCCL.

It is a year to the day since we started blogging!

And before we doing anything else we have to say a BIG THANK YOU to the very kind person who sent flowers to Sarah's office this morning. We wrongly assumed  they were from the FBU and tried to say thank you, but apart from a Happy 1st Birthday tag there was no name.  Tomorrow evening we will place them on the Fire Fighters Memorial in Burley, Leeds  in recognition of all the fire fighters who have died carrying out their duties and serving the public without thought for their personal safety but for now they have pride of place in the house.



I think most people know why we started this blog. In December 2011 after fighting hard to try and save both Gipton and Stanks Fire Stations from closure in East Leeds  we read with incredulity the fact that WYFRS were publicly crowing that the IRMP Consultation Proposals pages of their website had had 1,750 hits. We as  the community and indeed the FBU concurred with us, that for 12 weeks of consultation it was pathetic, especially as many WYFRS staff would have taken a peek to see exactly what the website said from their computers at home. FCCL itself had been on the site from at least 5 different IP addresses.

1750 works out at approx  21 hits a day

for an area that has over a million residents!

Pathetic!

So in September 2012 when the next round of cuts consultation was announced, we decided to set up a little experiment to TRY and get 1751 hits to prove to the public how much positive spin WYFRS put on their literature. A little blog with at that time no publicity apart from a few postings in the comments section of the local newspapers.  (we didn't set up our facebook page till later in September).

In the three months of consultation in 2012  the FCCL blog got 41,0001 views. 

We would like to share with you some of our vital statistics to date;

102,480 hits as of 7pm this evening.

Wednesday  7th November 2012 was our best ever day with over 5,500 hits which was triggered by retired Firefighter Joe O'Keefe - Morals don't pay the mortgage post. 

Our Top Three locations are

1. Leeds
2. London (which is indicative of  smart phone usage)
3. Cleckheaton 


Our Top Three Service Providers are

1. IP Pools
2. Business static locations
3.Sky

and way down at  No 53  - West Yorkshire Fire and Civil Defence Authority which has visited us 34  times. The last being earlier today (sorry we didn't update the blog in time for you to see).

BUT THE THING WE ARE PROUDEST

 OF IS OUR

BOUNCE RATE  =   14.98%

Most websites expect to get a bounce rate of at least 40% . We have all done it - that "whoops that's not the site we expected"  when you  jump straight off a website because it is the wrong one. A bounce rate of 14.98%   makes us the envy of our friends in the IT world. (and we work in IT remember)  In fact in November 2012 it was less than 6% and even in the wilderness months of January / February  never went past 20%.

 FCCL is without a doubt attracting
its' target audience!


Mind you we knew from day two (and only 56 hits) we were onto a winner. But more about that tomorrow when we will tell you about a very unusual phone call from Hannah Stoneman of WYFRS and follow up emails from CFO Pilling.


BUT AS ALWAYS WE WILL LEAVE THE BEST TILL LAST.....   


We owe so many people THANK YOU's


David Williams of the West Yorks FBU

and all of the WYFBU  team who have taken a great deal of stick for what we have done.


Andy Killingbeck - retired Gipton Fire fighter  who even though he wasn't and isn't responsible for FCCL has undergone a malicious pension review because of FCCL.

All at South Yorks FBU - and their comrades in Doncaster who made us very welcome.


Joe O'Keefe (retired fire fighter Keighley) who has fought hard to bring the truth into the public domain.


Anthea Orchard - ex WYFRS employee 


And perhaps the biggest THANK YOU OF ALL  needs to go to all the people who help us that we cannot ever name.

Without your help this  site would not be as successful
 as it has been.

We look forward to our next 365 days of blogging. 

Jaime, Jaime Give us your answer do ?

CFO Jaime Courtney 

Jaime, Jaime give us your answer do

Are they ready, will they know what  to do ?

They’ll  only have  three weeks training

The  fire chief  we’re blaming , 

They aren’t well trained, the officers lame 

When it goes wrong, who will they sue? 

FCCL are very concerned about the use of scab labour within the fire and rescue service should industrial action take place. 

We know in any union it is the ultimate sanction - the withdrawal of labour is only used as a last resort and is a democratic decision not lightly taken by the FBU.

However in South Yorkshire  the Chief Fire Officer,Jaime Courtney has taken the unprecendented step  of recruiting and training  scab  labour in an effort to pre empt any possible action by the Fire Brigades Union. This creates loads of issues - and the first one has to be for the safety  of the people employed  to  do the job.   

So as well as hiring new staff who will receive minimum training on a zero hours contracts, FCCL understand they are also looking at sending managers with these new crews to incidents. The majority of managers in SYFR are members of the toothless Fire Officers Association. 

These  managers are surely  worried and concerned that should something go wrong at an incident then the blame could shift to them, the professionals, who will be overseeing the  totally inexperienced  workforce! 

The new "fire operatives"  are being trained in the use of breathing apparatus but what other training can you  compress into three weeks (when a normal fire fighter takes THREE MONTHS  to train to minimum standards). Normally when a Firefighter completes their initial training, they are not immediately allowed to use BA operationally. The officer in charge of the watch lets the individual gain some experience first and introduces them gradually to fires. They will normally only enter a premises when the main fire is extinguished and they will just dampen down etc. Eventually the officer in charge will allow them to go into a fire but only with an experienced Firefighter. It is normally around at least 6 months before the officer in charge  feels they are capable of being a competent BA wearer. 

THE DRIVING  FORCE ? 

Driving under blue light conditions, a  new driver would have most likely  been in the brigade for a number of years before becoming a driver. . Because of this they would have the experience of being in the back of an appliance which means they already know what is expected of them should they decide to take the plunge. 

Is driving a conventional HGV vehicle the same as driving a fire appliance under blue light conditions 

NO! 

FCCLS  advice to managers would be to join the Fire Brigades Union and strike with their colleagues instead of leaving firefighters to lose pay and fight for their pensions whilst they will they will still be getting paid to supervise  far from competent staff, even though managers have got the most to lose from the proposed change in pensions.

ARE OFFICERS TOO POSH TO PUSH  

(for  the right to retire at 55? )

Health and safety is at the heart of fire and rescue -  and nothing is more important than the health and safety of the fire fighters who carry out this dangerous role.  One of the major factors in improving safety is the one thing that is taught in theory but  in the main is learnt by practise - TEAMWORK.   How can people with only three weeks training have the ability to operate as a team and be competent in what they do? 

THEY CAN'T !!! 

But does the Chief Fire Officer even care ? 

At a recent community consultation event in Sheffield  where FCCL was one of only two members of the public attending  FCCL asked Jaime Courtney about  the competency of these proposed "fire operatives" His answer was so off the cuff we actually wrote it down so as not to mis quote him. 

"NOT COMPETENT - BUT WILLING !"

Willing to what exactly Jaime  - DIE ?

And we here at FCCL after discussing what he said  with operational and very experienced firefighters think that  its the strike breaking officers who will be  the scapegoats in all of this - they are even now they are being told to attend incidents with crews - so that if and when a strike takes place it can be said that attending fires is part of their everyday role. 

And of course it begs the question, are the officers who will supervise these incompetent but willing crews when something goes horrendously wrong be the ones to carry the can?  

Well with 18 months of campaigning under our belt we at FCCL have learnt one thing.

Chief Fire Officers most certainly do not take the blame for anything if they can dump it on  somebody else! 

It's going to be the Officers In Charge 

who carry the can for any accidents. 

6 minutes response time vital - why ?

We bang on about fires a  lot here at FCCL  and  don't mention rescues very often, the video below is about texting whilst  driving  but demonstrates clearly (and graphically! ) why response times for rescues are just as important as response times for fires. 

Because if you are trapped in a car and injured,  a increase in response time of a couple of minutes  from Fire and Rescue  can be the difference between 

LIFE  

& 

DEATH 

In emergency medicine, the golden hour (also known as golden time) refers to a time period lasting from a few minutes to several hours following traumatic injury being sustained by a casualty, during which there is the highest likelihood that prompt medical treatment will prevent death. It is well established that the patient's chances of survival are greatest if they receive care within a short period of time after a severe injury.

In cases of severe trauma, especially internal bleeding, surgical intervention is required. Complications such as shock may occur if the patient is not managed appropriately and expeditiously. 

It therefore becomes a priority to transport patients suffering from severe trauma as fast as possible to specialists, most often found at a hospital trauma center, for definitive treatment. Because some injuries can cause a trauma patient to deteriorate extremely rapidly, the lag time between injury and treatment should ideally be kept to a bare minimum; over time, this lag time has come to be specified as a now-standard time frame of no more than 60 minutes, after which time the survival rate for traumatic patients is alleged to fall off dramatically

South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue are currently consulting about response times in their  area 

----Just CLICK HERE 

to take you directly to the consultation questions.

More information about their Integrated Risk Management Plan can be found HERE

Hold The Front Page - And Squint !!!!

We had a bit of a discussion on twitter this morning  

The conversation went like this: 

@syfrthe consultation period doesnt end till June 27th, please put the consultation back to a prominentposition on your website
— FireCutsCostLives(@FireCCL) June 4, 2013

@syfrits half way down, prominent would be nice!
— FireCutsCostLives(@FireCCL) June 4, 2013

At  this point  we better explain that PROMINENT  means 

prom·i·nent

  [prom-uh-nuhnt]  Show IPA

adjective

1.

standing out so as to be seen easily; conspicuous; particularly noticeable: Her eyes are her mostprominent feature.

2.

standing out beyond the adjacent surface or line; projecting.

3.

leading, important, or well-known: a prominent citizen.

Anyway  - you  decide!

Prominent  or 

hidden halfway down in minuscule print!

Officers - 1 Firefighters - Nil

 

Righty before you read anymore - watch this video

Regardless of whatever South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue try to convince you about response times,  you have THREE MINUTES to evacuate your house if  you have a fire. 

 Fire and Rescue response times matter !

Scared................Concerned ............Frightened .................  GOOD         so you should be 

FIRE KILLS  - and you will never ever see a smoke alarm rescue somebody 

from a burning building. That is a fire fighters job, some would say a vocation. 

BUT 

the Karma Fairy has been waving her wand again and  as we start to blog about South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue the  news  is full of incidents  that have over the past few days stretched South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue to breaking point. 

On the 29th May  there was an explosion  in Dundas Road, Tinsley, Sheffield. 

At approximately 9am Agostinho Jesus went to leave his property when a huge explosion ripped through the house.  Mr Jesus describes the incident on the BBC website here and thought he was burning alive!  

Courtesy of the BBC

4 pumps and support vehicles  attended that incident, including those from the local station Darnell which has been earmarked for closure in this years rounds of cuts in provision

Retained staff had to be brought in to crew resilience pumps there as South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue were so stretched that day. 

The incident made the national news, it was on several times during the day. And if you had looked very closely at the screen you might have seen something  to shock you. ........

Even though the incident commenced at 9am and went on until 8pm in the evening - the fire fighters on duty remained the same.   The officers changed though,  i bet you cant guess when it was .............

 A)  Tea time  ?

  B) Lunchtime  ?  

Yes you guessed it -  the firefighters (the ones who do the dirty dangerous work) didn't get relieved at all, but the officers were, just in time for lunch.  

We bet the Chief Fire Officer was just relieved there 

wasn't another major incident that day !

BUT ONLY TWO DAYS LATER .......................

In the early hours of  June 1st  fire crews were called to Cow House Lane, Doncaster . The fire was in a yard used to store pallets. The alarm was raised at approx  1.30am . 

Now  I know I am not an expert - but having seen many bonfires that consist in the main of  (yes you guessed it) 

WOODEN PALLETS  

even I,  a rank amateur  would probably on balance 

if I had received a 999 call saying 

 would have hedged my bets and sent a couple of engines 

 ( just to be on the safe side )

BUT NO  - South Yorkshire  FRS in line with their "challenging policy" sent just the one engine on a recce !

Oh to be a fly on the wall when they rang back for assistance!

And although on the SYFRS site as a separate incident, we are assured that  the fire spread to a nearby industrial park. At the height of the incident over 70 firefighters were involved and engines had to be brought in from West Yorkshire. 

Courtesy of SYFRS 

And at 9am the same day   -  another large fire  this time in Sheffield attended by 5 pumps and 25 fire fighters at a rubber recycling plant in Monckton. 

Fires such as these can happen at anytime - as CFO Jamie Courtney said only last week, "we can reduce the chances of a fire with good fire prevention  BUT we cant reduce the severity once it takes place"  

Please oppose the cuts in provision in South Yorkshire.

If you wish to voice your opposition please use the link HERE to take you to the SYFRS website 

OR TO GO DIRECTLY TO THE  CONSULATION SITE  Just CLICK HERE 

South Yorkshire Consulation ..................

Good Morning South Yorkshire 

Ok so its a bit early for humour! 

The Fire Brigades Union represents Fire Fighters all over the country, the Union like fire has no boundaries. So when we heard of our neighbours in South Yorkshire we did the ONLY   thing  possible and have offered to put our little blog at  our South Yorks comrades disposal. Because like us here at Fire Cuts Cost Lives the FBU believe a solid coalition of fire professionals and community are the  way to save the fire service from these irresponsible cuts in provision.

We hope the FCCL effect of gentle banter combined with solid facts will  ensure that the citizens of South Yorkshire have the full facts in regard to the current consultation at their disposal. And as the fire and rescue service learnt to their cost in West Yorkshire in 2012 social media can have a massive effect on how the process of public consultation works.

So over  the coming few weeks we hope the FCCL effect will rub off on to the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority and they will start to realise that the community do not back  the cuts in provision and response times that they propose.

Ask yourself a question  ,,,,to get the correct information about response times who would you trust to give an honest answer?

So 

lets start with the easy stuff,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, if you want to know more about how you can support you local firefighters get in touch with 

South Yorkshire Fire Brigades Union. 

Their  website is HERE  and their brigade organiser is Matt Winslow and  you can email him by clicking   HERE 

And if you wish to voice your opposition please use the link HERE to take you to the SYFRS website 

----Just CLICK HERE 

to take you directly to the consultation questions.

but REMEMBER ONE THING

It's YOUR LOCAL COUNCILLORS 

WHO WILL  MAKE THE DECISION TO CLOSE YOUR LOCAL STATIONS!!!!


TUESDAY at Doncaster Mansion House there will be  an opportunity to view the plans and have you say ---- details are available HERE