Pots and Kettles ACO Walton

There are a lot of posts this evening about the emergency services who on this festive evening will be working just the same as any other day of the year. With heavy rain and bad weather on the way and both incidents and response times on the up,  it will be far from the lazy Christmas many of us will have.

They will be missing this ..........

 

Perhaps even this .........

 

 

But hypocrites they most certainly aren't

 

unlike ACO Dave Walton of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue who committed a twitter faux pas today that we personally think was an insult to the committed operational staff of WYFRS who are working over the festive period.

 

  

Today, Christmas Eve he tweeted this

 

 But on the 22nd he tweeted this.

 

We have to confess we do love his tweet about    Ignoring media hype about firefighters with truncheons & cops with hoses-Is move to Home Office good for FRS?

Which we basically interpret as "@?*& goes my chance to be a CFO" 

 

With the magnificent total of 39 votes we suspect many in the Chief Fire Officers Association members at Birkenshaw agree with him it's not a great idea.  Let's face it who would want  Theresa May as your boss!

We will no doubt talk more about the police and crime commissioners in  2016.

But for now there are just two things

1. to David Williams , West Yorks FBU brigade secretary who burst out laughing when he heard I had a spinning wheel  - been warned sweetie with another FOUR YEARS of cuts coming you might just end up with the FRS equivalent  - a bucket of water.

2. Santa has brought our present a little early - the site is still under construction but ladies and gentlemen  we present (da da daaaa)  

firecutscostlives.com

 

TITS

There are many types of tits. 
Some are quite rare these days as due to heavy use of pesticides and other chemicals reducing their food supply their numbers have diminished. 

BUT  - we are referring to NON OF THESE!

(but we reckon you guessed that) 

TIT's  in Fire & Rescue Terms can mean only one thing.............

TEST   IT   TUESDAY  

Launched in 2011 (we think) the Test it Tuesday campaign encourages people to test their smoke alarms on, yes you have probably guessed by now 

FCCL has started researching other Fire and Rescue websites and we think its a very fair comment to say that WYFRS site is DIRE. 

It seems to us that they do not wish to engage with the general public at any other level than in  an US and THEM situation. 

For example below is a video from  South Wales Fire  that demonstrates how fire fighters are prepared to make "idiots" of themselves to get a very pertinent point across. 

What do WYFRS say about smoke alarms - its here    and its very BORING, un engaging and dry.

Come on WYFRS you employ qualified professionals in your communications team, surely  they can come up with ways to engage the public in fire safety via social media .....................its gets to lots of people  (we can assert to that) is cheap to do and engages old and young alike.

BUT ........whoops, they do seem to have lost one key member of the comms  team, the one Cllr Brian Selby was slathering in praise how wonderful she was at her job , whilst in the same breath making digs at certain blogs and websites.

Hannah Stoneman, the 2012 IRMP consultation co-ordinator  who after her job was re profiled and about  £20k knocked off her "value" - voted with her feet and went to Yorkshire Water. Did she jump, was she pushed, we will never know?

Question : Does this mean she was over valued  in the first place?  As the  financial year has ended and the WYFRS accountants do their sums to prepare the annual accounts we await with interest to see if the number of people employed who earn £50k or over a year has decreased from last year. We even have a chartered accountant ready to give them the once over.


............. put it this way if they haven't , we will be very annoyed and will blog our disapproval                                                                                        accordingly. Fire fighters are losing jobs, staff being made redundant and  in our opinion senior staff should also be taking the hit.  Cos according to at least one little birdie pictured above 

"We are all in this together"

oh and just to let you know we have updated our union pages here   with Unison information and added a few extra links to our reading lists. 

Happy Browsing 

The FCCL Team. 

HR Update - New fire fighter posts in West Yorkshire !!!!

 Well OK, we confess there has only been ONE. 

Was it a "coal face firefighter" at  £28k a year 

NOPE

Was it  middle ranking officer at about  £50k a year 

NOT THAT EITHER 

The only recruitment that has taken place is for an 

Assistant Chief Fire Officer 

at a whopping  £120k plus 

figures from  WYFRA HR Committee 12th April 2013 

Now call us old fashioned but surely IF the number of stations is reducing, staff numbers being cut and  things according to Simon Pilling are all looking good, (fires down, smoke alarms saving people from burning buildings etc) 

Why do you need to replace an ACO?   

We know Martyns gone off  to play trains, a hobby he has pursued since being a teenager,  but  surely the top table should take a large dose of its own medicine and embrace the concept of not filling vacant posts due to retirement.  

Don't forget we are due another ACO retirement later in the year Craig McIntosh retires (and is  probably due to spend more time with his bagpipes) and then  Steve Rhodes hops into his  empty post on  July 1st 2013. This was all decided way back in September 2012. 

Perhaps its time to consider a 

"fundamental review"  of  the top table. 

Actually the HR report for April 12th is a cracking good read, and we will be blogging more about it the coming few days.Staff Cuts, job re profiling , compromise agreements, redundancies, compulsory and otherwise make shameful reading especially when this has all be implemented by a Labour controlled authority. 

Mind you Politicians also line their nests with money from the public purse,  we asked way back in September if people knew how much fire authority councillors receive as an allowance. And many councillors receive more than one allowance  from varying sources.  Click here to see what we wrote way back in Sept 2012. The chair of the fire authorities income is a fascinating read, he must have at least 30 hours in every day to pack it all in, and thats not counting the FOI investigation  he has been involved with recently! 

We are currently researching how much some of the WYFRA members get from the public purse to carry out their various duties.   It's quite an interesting  topic,  while  many of their constituents lose benefits, and get clobbered by bedroom taxes etc  politicians don't seem to be suffering at all ..............and the more "posts" you do, the more money you get. 

But surely the more you do 

 - the less time you give to each! 

House Calls

We would like to know 

your views on response times. 

And before you complete the survey below - please take a minute to watch how quickly a fire can take hold in a domestic setting. AND REMEMBER - a fire doubles in size every minute!

So now you have watched what happens in TWO minutes - please complete the survey below. 

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

2 Days - 2 Fires - 2 Deaths

It is with great sadness we  have to report that in the last two days we have read of  two fire fatalities in Leeds,  West Yorkshire. 

The first was in Bawn Vale  in Farnley where fire fighters found the body of an elderly man at 3.30am  on March 5th.  The fire was so severe that neighbours have had to be evacuated as the  building is structurally unsafe. Bawn Vales postcode reveals to us that it was in an area designated "High Risk"  by WYFRS. 

More details of the incident can be found  here  on the BBC news website 

Bawn Vale _Courtesy of the Yorkshire Post 

The next fire was also in Leeds, Harehills to be precise. Again an elderly person was the victim, who sadly died after being rescued by fire crews.  Brownhill Crescent is currently designated a "Very High Risk" area and was a back to back house (a subject on which we blogged many moons ago - see here  for details) 

Brownhill Crescent _ Courtesy of the Yorkshire Evening Post 

A firefighter who attended the scene told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “Once the fire was brought under control, firefighters wearing breathing apparatus entered the building and located a female and brought her out. She was unconscious and was taken to hospital.”

Please note it was a qualified and experienced  firefighter who rescued the lady concerned

 NOT a smoke alarm!!!!  

Both as FCCL and COVEN  we have repeatedly told of our concerns regarding the closure of Gipton Fire Station as the areas of Very High Risk are  closer to it than the proposed new "superstation" at Killingbeck. 

We are now hearing of ways and means that may allow WYFRS to legitimately increase response times across all West Yorkshires Very High Risk Areas and we will shortly  reveal  these to the public, but until noon Friday our lips are sealed. 

Will you be shocked - YES 

Will you be disgusted - YES 

Ironically  the Harehills fatality was in the Burmantofts &  Richmond Hill Ward  of Cllr Ron Grahame, who in  2011 voted to close Gipton and Stanks fire stations.  We wonder how you are feeling now Ron, because  you can be guaranteed fires in your ward will eventually go up, smoke and mirrors can only last for so long.

As ACO Martyn Redfearn said to the select committee - people will die because of these cuts in service. The post  is available HERE

Poverty is rising, the population is ageing - both of these increase the risk of fire. It has not gone un noticed by FCCL that   both of these fatalities were elderly people living in socially disadvantaged areas of the city. 

When FCCL first  set up, and was less than 24 hours old we were phoned by Hannah Stoneman of WYFRS who tried to tell us that the death of  James Whitburn of Chapeltown was "nothing to do with the IRMP"  So we can only assume that were we to ask them WYFRS would say exactly the same about the two fires above. 

Privatisation of Fire & Rescue - Please Object

We can't say it any better ourselves so below in full is the information from 38 Degrees about the current governements proposals to privatise the Fire & Rescue  Service. 

And next they PRIVATISE 

Revealed: it looks like the government is planning to privatise our fire service. It's trying to sneak in new laws that "would enable fire and rescue authorities in England to contract out their full range of services to a suitable provider". [1]

Every day, fire crews put their lives in danger to keep us safe. Within minutes of an emergency, we can expect fire engines to be there to save lives and protect our property. 

Privatising these vital services might seem crazy. But that’s exactly what the government is trying to slip through a hush-hush parliamentary committee. [2]

Let’s make sure the government knows we’re watching. We’ve seen bad ideas get much too far before. We need to move fast to show the government that we want a fire service whose priority is protecting people's lives, not making profit. Together we can prove how unpopular privatising the fire service would be with the public. 

Sign the petition HERE  

Our fire service is a precious emergency service that we all depend on for our lives and our safety. Between 2011 and 2012, English firefighters attended 606,000 incidents. [3] If the government is allowed to sell the fire service off to private companies, then the essence of our fire service, a service for all of us whenever we need it, might be lost forever.

Private companies have been circling the fire service for years. [4] They recognise that money can be made and they want to piggyback off a service the public holds dear.

The government can’t afford another big battle over privatisation. It'll know that 38 Degrees members were responsible for stopping the sell-off of our forests and making sure the NHS changes were as controversial as possible. [5]

So let’s make sure they know they're up against us again. Sign the petition to stop privatisation of our fire service now:

NOTES
[1] Daily Mirror - Fire sale: Secret government bid to privatise fire and rescue services revealed:http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/privatised-fire-and-rescue-services-secret-1593277
Letter from Brandon Lewis outlining the plan: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/fire-letter
[2] For more information about the Regulatory Reform Committee click here: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/regulatory-reform-committee/
[3] Fire Statistics Monitor, April 2011 - March 2012: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/6959/2172323.pdf
[4] BBC News - Fire Service College to be sold to Capita: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-20715276
[5] Great news: Government agree to protect our forests: http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2013/02/01/great-news-government-agree-to-protect-our-forests/
NHS: A round up: http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2012/03/21/nhs-roundup/

Sign the petition HERE  

Remember People Power Does Work 

Shortly After FCCL published the post about Rothwell available HERE, and other local Leeds Stations talked about HERE  West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue caved in and gave reprieves to Garforth, Rothwell, Hunslet and Morley Stations. 

And in regard to privatisation - IF Simon Pilling is content to reduce cover and build new stations we suspect he knows which stations will be ripe for privatisation and 

(we wonder if they will pay him £160k a year to run them? )

Mondays  posting will be - When is a petrol tank invisible ? 

Another Cat - Another Story !

Our  ears pricked up this morning when another cat  in the WYFRS estate spilled the beans on what was happening on her patch. 

The picture she sent gave us a bit of a hint.

Leeds Station Cat


It seems that firefighters based at Leeds Station on Kirkstall Road are being paid
to paint the interior of the station

(whilst on duty!)

Obviously we hope this is being paid legitimately via the payroll  system, although we are not sure how?

Overtime maybe ? 

This raises many issues, including that of equality.
Do all fire fighters at all stations get the opportunity to tart up their stations ?
Was a proper procurement exercise undertaken?
Health and Safety also springs to mind, although FCCL arent too worried about their ability to use ladders. 


BUT 
and its quite a


BIG BUT 
(yes i can imagine all the snide comments thank you very much) 

WHY AREN'T  THEY ENGAGED IN OPERATIONAL DUTIES?

You know the run of the mill stuff like Home Fire Safety Checks, SCRI's,

The risk banding for Leeds in 2012 is VERY HIGH the projected risk band for 2013 is also  VERY HIGH. 
Is this because instead of doing their proper jobs, staff there are wielding paintbrushes?


 Leeds areas for performance improvement are


Road Traffic Collisions

Malicious False Alarms

Actual Rescues


As the same document  we obtained these figures from states that Leeds FS will be utilising  staff and resources from Moortown and Cookridge to enable them to achieve their targets, we don't understand  why qualified fire fighters are being allowed (and indeed paid ) to decorate a fire station!

We wonder if the councillors on the Fire Authority know and condone this practice?

For information the Leeds District Risk Reduction Plan is available HERE

So What's New

So Whats New?

Well the Consultation Period is over (or is it?) . Following massive rejection of the proposals, WYF&RS have now watered down their plans  They can be found here->.  

A report of the consultation can also be found amongst the agenda of the meeting due to take place on Friday.( It can be found here)  from Page 91 onwards - but we have copied the relevant pieces:-

SUMMARY OF FORMAL REPRESENTATIONS

4.1 The Authority received  seven letters/emails 

(NOTE -Only SEVEN! -editor) 

of support or indications of no objection to the proposals.  These were from West Yorkshire Resilience Forum, Leeds City Council Safer and Stronger Scrutiny Committee, Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, (What about South Yorkshire Fire Service?-Editor) Kirklees Council and two residents from Marsden and Morley. (Must be officers? ed')

4.2 12,037 letters/emails of objection/concern from individuals, groups or organisations were received - 1,309 being unspecific in nature.  
Across the county 

45% of these relate to proposals in the Leeds district, 
22% within the Bradford district, 
13% in Wakefield district, 
9% in the Kirklees district 
and less than 

1% in the Calderdale district. 
This contrasts to a total 2,999 items of formal representation received following public consultation during September – December 2011 regarding seven proposals to change emergency cover in West Yorkshire.

Wow what an increase! We at FCCL wonder why?

4.3 There was a volume of correspondence that opposed changes in the districts of Bradford and Leeds.  258 letters/emails of objection/concern related to changes proposed across the  Bradford District and  14 letters/emails were received relating to  changes across the Leeds District. The issues of concern are captured under the relevant proposals below. 

4.4 Activity/responses relating directly to the eleven proposals was as follows (all figures  excluding responses by the Fire Brigades Union  and Fire Officers’ Association which are outlined at sections 4.15.1 and 4.15.2 below).

OUR FCCL RESPONSE IS OBVIOUSLY NOT WORTHY OF AN INDIVIDUAL MENTION!

It doesn't say, however, how many hits their web site had! 

We suspect the reason is, is because this site had many more! 

How many did FCCL Have? See here!

We do still have concerns about the way stakeholders were consulted! (See below). 

ONLY 100!

3 CONSULTATION ACTIVITY

3.1 Approximately 100 stakeholders were identified for direct contact,  including Members of Parliament; district, town and parish councils; neighbouring fire authorities and emergency services; local representative bodies; external employer and employee organisations and voluntary bodies. Representations 

were invited by 30 November 2012.

OK As we at FCCL Have already said, 100, in a county the size of West Yorkshire, IS NOT VERY MANY! and only an increase in 20 on last years!

 Click here to see  What we feel consultation with Stakeholders should be all about!

In the article found here , it comments that- 

"THOUSANDS of residents in more than 100 council wards across West Yorkshire will lose out on emergency response times if radical fire service cutbacks are carried out."

 100 council Wards would equal 300 councillors!

3.2 In recognition of the fact that it was not possible to communicate individually with 

all those who may wish to submit observations, the proposals were  also 

publicised via the internet and intranet, the print (See the links here, here and here and broadcast media. 
This year a consultation email account was provided and published to improve ease of 

communication for the public.  In addition, a consultation email account and 

hotline  was established in the  Public Information Office  for people seeking 

further information and assistance on the consultation process and timetable.

HOWEVER WE AT FCCL STILL HAVE CONCERNS

The new proposal now suggest that apart from the removal of appliances from some stations, Garforth, Rothwell and Morley, 

             are down graded to Day Crewing!

The

NATIONAL JOINT COUNCIL

FOR LOCAL AUTHORITY

FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICES

Scheme of Conditions of Service

Sixth Edition 2004 (updated 2009) -

Describes Day Crewing as-

7.5 Day Crewing

Day Crewing is a duty system contained within firefighters' national 

terms and conditions, however, any move on to this system is 

voluntary, as it requires staff to live within  5 minutes of the station.  

Firefighters are suitably recompensed with an on-call allowance, 

turnout fees and rent/fuel allowance.  In theory, there are sufficient staff 

living within the 5 minute zone at all stations proposed to change to the 

Day Crewing system but further work is required to establish interest in 

working this duty system.

What this means is that, apart from all the additional costs and implementation problems, (as above) which they haven't mentioned!

On an evening, 

In MORLEY 

There will be a delay of 5 Minutes before an appliance can attend if there is an incident! 

WYF&RS Say- The response in the evening and at nights from 
Morley would be delayed by up to five minutes compared to its current performance due to firefighters responding from home and therefore, in some cases, the wholetime shift  Hunslet fire engine would respond faster into Morley’s area.

This is actually worse than the original proposals!-

Councillor Robert Finnigan (Morley Independants) has already e mailed us and shown his support!

And NOTHING is mentioned about the time increase in the revised proposals for!

GARFORTH and ROTHWELL

Back in 2004 WYF&RS tried to downgrade Garforth to Day Crewing (see link here) (and here)
This is what happened then!
Article can be found here!

Victory for Public Opinion!

We at FCCL feel that these new proposals are once again subject to further public consultation and urge every one concerned to immediately contact their  

Local Councillor 

to demand that this now takes place,

BEFORE NEXT FRIDAY'S AUTHORITY MEETING

YOU CAN FIND THE LINK TO CONTACT THEM

Here
or
MP'S
Ed Balls - Morley

George Mudie - East Leeds

Alec Shelbrooke-Elmet and Rothwell

HOW MANY !!!!!!!

We here at FireCutsCostLives need to say a big THANK YOU 

When we started this blog in September  we aimed to get 1751 hits

(one more than WYFRS had on their site during the 2011 consultation period)   

In September we had  1,214

By October we had 10,928 hits in one month 

And by November we had 28,859 hits 

This gives a grand total throughout the 12 week period of consultation of 41,001 hits  

As we were directing our traffic to the WYFRS website we wonder how many they got? 

Just a Quickie !!!!!!!

To let you know we have today asked for an update of the WYFRS incident log for the period between 

 2nd  - 9th November 2012.

This is allegedly WYFRS busiest time of the year ................. BUT some newspaper reports say its been very quiet and others that it was  busy on bonfire night. So we here at FCCL intend to find out the truth................. as we can compare it with last years data.

Sadly we can only assume that as nothing was posted for an entire week the news is not as rosy as they would wish the public to believe.

We sincerely look forward to being

WRONG

BUT

This morning  we read of a fire fatality and as yet no mention of it has appeared on incident log.  Sadly a woman died in a flat fire in West Park in the early hours of this morning. Tenders from Moortown and Cookridge attended. (both closing incidentally)

We offer our sincere condolences to her family. The article in the Yorkshire Evening Post is available HERE

BUT

We cant help but wonder how the incident will be logged  as we are hearing stories of fires being misrecorded,  as  now to record a fire as "deliberate"  a fire investigation officer has to attend to confirm it. 

When did this happen as normally it is left to the PROFESSIONAL discretion of the officer in charge ?

What a brilliant way to massage figures!!!!!!!


Anyway as usual if you would like to take part in the process of consultation  please see the details below. And if you would like to read what constitutes a "stakeholder" in the engagement process click HERE 

TO send YOUR VIEWS on the proposed cuts in West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Provision 

Click HERE  to view the consultation documents.

You can also send your comments via snail mail to 

Hannah Stoneman   or email her HERE

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue

Oakroyd Hall

Bradford Road

Birkenshaw

West Yorkshire

BD11 2DY

What are Stakeholders?

What are Stakeholders?

That is a question that we here at FCCL Have been asking for sometime!

We would like to know how 

WEST YORKSHIRE FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE Determine who are their 

STAKEHOLDERS!

We have already mentioned that in last years "Cuts" Proposals, They consulted with 80 Stakeholders regionally. 

So we at FFCL Thought we would try to find out what is meant by the term

Stakeholder

Accounting - Introduction to Stakeholders

Author: Jim Riley  Last updated: Wednesday 24 October, 2012

Introduction to stakeholders

Let’s start with a definition of stakeholders, which are:

Groups / individuals that are affected by and/or have an interest in the operations and objectives of the business

Most businesses have a variety of stakeholder groups which can be broadly categorised as follows:

Stakeholder groups vary both in terms of their interest in the business activities and also their power to influence business decisions.  Here is a useful summary:

Stakeholder	Main Interests	Power and influence
Shareholders	Profit growth, Share price growth, dividends	Election of directors
Banks & other Lenders	Interest and principal to be repaid, maintain credit rating	Can enforce loan covenants Can withdraw banking facilities
Directors and managers	Salary ,share options, job satisfaction, status	Make decisions, have detailed information
Employees	Salaries & wages, job security, job satisfaction & motivation	Staff turnover, industrial action, service quality
Suppliers	Long term contracts, prompt payment, growth of purchasing	Pricing, quality, product availability
Customers	Reliable quality, value for money, product availability, customer service	Revenue / repeat business Word of mouth recommendation
Community	Environment, local jobs, local impact	Indirect via local planning and opinion leaders
Government	Operate legally, tax receipts, jobs	Regulation, subsidies, taxation, planning

View the full page here

The BBC GCSE Bitesize Website for School Children gives this example

This Link can be found here!

Businesses have different types of internal and external stakeholders, with different interests and priorities. Sometimes these interests can conflict.

What are stakeholders?

A stakeholder is anyone with an interest in a business. Stakeholders are individuals, groups or organisations that are affected by the activity of the business. They include:

Owners who are interested in how much profit the business makes.

Managers who are concerned about their salary.
Workers who want to earn high wages and keep their jobs.

Customers who want the business to produce quality products at reasonable prices.
Suppliers who want the business to continue to buy their products.
Lenders who want to be repaid on time and in full.

The community which has a stake in the business as employers of local people. Business activity also affects the local environment. For example, noisy night-time deliveries or a smelly factory would be unpopular with local residents.

Internal stakeholders are groups within a business - eg owners and workers.External stakeholders are groups outside a business - eg the community.

 SO Here at FCCL, we would consider that WYFRS's STAKEHOLDERS would be:-

1. Owners/Shareholders - They would be the Tax Payers of West Yorkshire
2. Directors/Managers - Self explanatory 
3. Customers - The Public of West Yorkshire 
4. Suppliers - A difficult one to define! but Probably anyone who has an Interest in ARSON
5. Workers - The Employees (an ever decreasing Number!)
6. Lenders/Banks - HM Treasury
7. Community - Same as Owner/Shareholder & Customers

WYFRS , in the -

FORMAL CONSULTATION PROCESS IN

RELATION TO THE SEVEN IRMP

PROPOSALS SUBMITTED TO WYFRA ON

9 SEPTEMBER 2011,

listed share holders as 

1. Members of Parliament; 
2. district, town and parish councils; 
3. neighbouring fire authorities and emergency services; 
4. local representative bodies; 
5. external employer and employee organisations
6. Voluntary bodies

 REMEMBER-80!

Now considering that there are

1. 17 MP's
2. Approximately 370 Local Councillors
3. Population approx 2.5 million

REMEMBER-80!

We can certainly see how well WYFRS carry out their consultation! or NOT as the case may be!!

PLEASE REMEMBER TUESDAY 13th November is consultation time in Marsden near Huddersfield

for further details click HERE