Agenda and minutes

Standing item.

The Chair welcomed County Councillor Matthew Salter who had replaced County Councillor Andrea Kay on the Authority.   The Chair advised that CC Kay had been unwell.  The Authority wished her a speedy recovery and asked that their wishes be passed on to her.

Mark Nolan, Clerk to the Authority, requested that Members complete an anonymous Equality Impact Assessment questionnaire for attendance at Combined Fire Authority Meetings. This would inform an Equality Impact Assessment which supported Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service to consider all reasonable adjustments for meeting attendees.

The Chair advised that the International Search and Rescue (ISAR) Team had won the Bravery Award at the BBC Make a Difference awards, following their deployment to Turkey earlier this year.  He congratulated the team on a well-deserved award.

The Chair explained that, due to the devastation caused by the earthquake in Morocco, the ISAR Team (plus Search dog) had been deployed to assist with the rescue effort. The Authority wished them well and a quick return.

Apologies were received from County Councillor Nikki Hennessy.

Members are asked to consider any pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

None received.

Resolved: That the Minutes of the CFA held on 26 June 2023 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

The Chair acknowledged that, regarding KPI 1.3.1 (Workforce Diversity), workforce diversity in the Service had improved greatly. 

In relation to KPI 2.9 (Fire Safety Activity – including Business Fire Safety Checks), the Chair praised the Service on the impressive number of Business Fire Safety Checks.

The Chair was pleased that North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) had joined to collaborate with LFRS and Lancashire Constabulary in relation to KPI 4.2 (Partnership Collaboration). 

Resolved: That the proceedings of the Performance Committee held on 28 June 2023 be noted.

In response to a query raised by County Councillor Singleton regarding the Service’s position on the funding gap for the current financial year, the Director of Corporate Services explained that there was a slight overspend of £200k.  An update would be reported in line with usual practice to the next meeting of the Resources Committee.

County Councillor Singleton queried how the proposed renovations in the Capital Programme would be funded. The Director of Corporate Services advised that the Capital Programme Member Working Group had been established and would consider the 3 Capital Building Projects (Service Headquarters Relocation, Preston Fire Station and Service Training Centre Props review). The first meeting was due to be held at the beginning of October and once a programme had been developed, costings could be calculated, and it would be known whether external borrowing would be needed. An update would be brought to a future Authority meeting.

The Chair asked, for the benefit of those Members who were unable to attend the Strategy meeting, for a comment on the appointment of an On-Call Station Manager. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained that an On-Call station Manager had been appointed to address some of the local and national challenges (identified from nationwide research) which faced the on-call duty system in order to increase on-call availability.

Resolved: That the proceedings of the Strategy Group held on 3 July 2023 be noted.

Resolved: That the proceedings of the Resources Committee held on 12 July 2023 be noted.

Resolved: That the proceedings of the Planning Committee held on 17 July 2023 be noted.

Resolved: That the proceedings of the Audit Committee held on 25 July 2023 be noted.

The concept of Member Champions was introduced in December 2007.  A review of the areas of focus for Member Champions was considered at the Authority meeting held in June 2017 where new areas of responsibility were agreed.  The current Member Champions and their areas of responsibility were:

·         Community Safety – Councillor Jean Rigby

·         Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – Councillor Zamir Khan

·         Health and Wellbeing – County Councillor Andrea Kay (up to 30 August 2023)

·         Road Safety – County Councillor Ron Woollam.

The Chair announced that County Councillor John Singleton would replace County Councillor Andrea Kay as Member Champion for Health and Wellbeing.

Reports relating to the activity of the Member Champions were provided on a regular basis to the Authority.  This report related to activity for the period up to 31 August 2023.  During this period all had undertaken their respective role in accordance with the defined terms of reference.

Member Champions went through the detail of their reports and expressed thanks to the officers who supported them in their roles. 

Members commented on the valuable work of the Prince’s Trust, in conjunction with LFRS, and that they would like an update on the achievements that had been made. It was noted that members were invited to attend Princes Trust Presentations throughout the county. The Chief Fire Officer stated that Lancashire had the largest delivery of the Prince’s Trust programme in the UK and a presentation would be brought to a future meeting of the Fire Authority to highlight the achievements of the programme.

County Councillor Ron Woollam advised that he had attended the ‘Alive to Drive’ demonstration organised by the Lancashire Road Safety Partnership on Preston Flag Market and he urged Members to attend as it was a very interesting and important campaign to raise awareness of road safety in Lancashire.

Resolved: That the Authority noted and endorsed the report and acknowledged the work of the respective Champions.

The report summarised Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service prosecutions pertaining to fire safety offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005.  One case was currently within the court system with the trial provisionally set for 16 October 2023.  Protection teams continued to investigate and build files in relation to further cases where offences were believed to have been committed, which involved a number of types of premises as outlined in the report. Of those cases one had been served a summons with the first hearing scheduled for 20 September 2023.  Two of the other cases had draft summonses drawn and four were currently under review by legal counsel. There was also one further case currently being investigated which might see a joint prosecution with the Health and Safety Executive.

Given the rapidly evolving regulatory change in building fire safety, an update on Fire Protection and Business Support was also provided, detailing how the Service was adapting delivery whilst developing its workforce, to ensure that it kept pace with the changes and improved public and firefighter safety within the built environment.

Members noted that, as at the end of July 2023, circa 3,685 Business Fire Safety Checks had been undertaken across Lancashire, with 619 identifying significant fire safety concerns resulting in follow up action by Protection teams.  The delivery of this valuable risk reduction work was well established across fire stations and continued to receive system refinements. 

From 1October 2023 the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, would be amended by the introduction of Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 which required all responsible persons to record their fire risk assessment in full (including all findings) along with the fire safety arrangements for premises, in all circumstances.  This was a significant change for responsible persons, as the Fire Safety Order currently only required a written fire risk assessment if the business had five or more employees or required a license. The new legislation would also introduce several additional duties on the responsible person, regarding information they must record and provide along with increasing the level of fines for some offences. 

To better prepare responsible persons for these changes, LFRS continued to undertake engagement activities, which included: i) the production of a letter outlining all relevant changes.  This was being distributed as part of the protection department’s day?to?day interactions with businesses and premises; ii) digital media and digital copies of the letter were being shared via partners; and iii) a campaign highlighting the changes was being conducted through LFRS’ social media channels and the website.

LFRS would also be supporting Business Safety Week (11 to 17September) where specific activities, engagement and media would raise awareness and support businesses and responsible persons to prepare for change and keep fire safety a priority.

Members also noted that following a trial for ‘arson being reckless as to whether life is endangered’ the defendant was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison plus two  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33/23

The Authority received a report that provided information relating to operational incidents of note since the last meeting.  As this had been a very busy operational period, the report detailed only the larger deployments or more complex incidents.  Full details of the following incidents were provided in the report:

·         Building fire in Fleetwood

·         Storage yard in Accrington

·         Multiple houses on fire in Accrington

·         Derelict chapel in Rossendale

·         Explosives discovered during police operation in Leyland

·         Commercial building fire in Haslingden

·         Road traffic collision on the M6, closing the motorway in both directions due to a spillage

·         Commercial building fire in Burnley

·         Commercial building fire in Barnoldswick

·         Commercial building fire in Blackburn

County Councillor Clarke commended the excellent work of the Service and superb operation tackling the fire at the Mount Hotel in Fleetwood.

Resolved: That the Authority noted the report.

Standing item.

The Monitoring Officer confirmed that there had been no complaints since the last meeting.

Resolved: That the current position be noted.

The next meeting of the Authority will be held on Monday 18 December 2023 at 10:30 hours at Washington Hall Training Centre, Euxton.

The next meeting of the Authority would be held on Monday 18 December 2023 at 10:30am at the Training Centre, Euxton.

The Authority is asked to consider whether, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, they consider that the public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, indicated under the heading to the item.

Resolved: That the press and members of the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, indicated under the heading to the item.

(Paragraphs 1 and 2)

Verbal report.

(Paragraphs 1 and 2)

The Clerk to the Authority withdrew from the meeting for this item.

Resolved: That the Authority approved the re-appointment of Mr Mark Nolan as Clerk and Monitoring Officer to the Lancashire Combined Fire Authority for a period of twelve months, to the September meeting of the Authority in 2024.