Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from County Councillors A Blake and M Ritson, and Councillor J Hugo.

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

County Councillor M Clifford declared a non-pecuniary interest in Cuerden Valley Park as Director due to it being mentioned and discussed in the Flooding Data Report and Water Safety Presentation.

Resolved: - That the Minutes of the last meeting held on the 03 September 2025 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair subject to County Councillor A Blake’s apologies being noted.

The Chair reminded Members of the importance of political neutrality within the Performance Committee meetings to ensure a cohesive approach for the benefit of the Service and the residents of Lancashire.

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO) presented a comprehensive report to the Performance Committee. This was the 2^nd quarterly report for 2025/26 as detailed in the Community Risk Management Plan 2022-2027.

In quarter 2, three Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), 1.2.3 Staff Absence Greenbook, 2.3.1 ADF – Harm to People: Casualties, and 2.9 Business Fire Safety Checks were shown in positive exception and two KPIs were shown in negative exception. These were 1.2.1 Staff Wholetime Absence Wholetime (WT), and 2.5 ABF (Non-Commercial Premises).

Members examined each indicator in turn focusing on those KPIs in exception as follows:

KPI 1 – Valuing our people so that they can focus on making Lancashire safer

1.1  Overall Staff Engagement

Members received an update on how staff were engaged during the period.

Between July and September 2025, 33 station visits were carried out by Principal Officers and Area Managers as part of the service-wide engagement programme.

Forty-two wellbeing interactions were undertaken ranging from workshops with crews to wellbeing support dog interactions.

Staff consultation began in September with wholetime firefighters on efficiency plans to optimise crewing through changes to crewing levels and improved rota management. All wholetime units provided feedback to shape the plans.

The Service engaged with staff over several topics relating to fleet and equipment including trials to test several breathing apparatus sets, looking at functionality, communications, and telemetry as part of a regional procurement exercise. Engagement workshops also took place with operational stakeholders relating to the Service’s Masterplan for the Leadership and Development Centre, and a survey was conducted on videos used in internal communications.

The latest staff survey was launched on 2 July 2025 and ran for eight and a half weeks until 29 August 2025. An independent research service coordinated the survey. It was delivered online and via paper copies which were sent to all stations.

The survey was supported by 51 visits to on-call and wholetime crews on station by the Communications Team. Three focus groups with on-call staff, wholetime supervisory managers, and support staff were also held to gain qualitative feedback to complement the survey data. In total, 511 responses to the survey were received (equating to 44% of staff).

The responses reflected good representation across different roles, ranks, and geographical areas of the Service.

The engagement index was calculated based on five questions that measured pride, advocacy, attachment, inspiration, and motivation; factors that were understood to be important features shared by staff who were engaged with the organisation.

For each respondent, an engagement score was calculated as the average score across the five questions, where strongly disagree was equivalent to 0, disagree was equivalent to 25, neither agree nor disagree was equivalent to 50, agree was equivalent to 75 and strongly agree was equivalent to 100. The engagement index was then calculated as the average engagement  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17-25/26

The report was produced in response to a Member request and summarised special service incidents related to flooding incidents recorded by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS), between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2025. The Analysis covered flooding due to surface water, rising river levels, high tide, or reservoir, and the recorded causes (heavy rainfall, obstruction/blockage, structural failure). Incidents involving burst pipes etc., were excluded. Fiscal years were used to align with seasonal effects and included the most recent 2025 data.

Area Manager, Phil Jones explained that there had been 881 flood related incidents over the ten-year period. Activity peaked in 2015/16 due to storm Desmond and Eva, both of which occurred in December 2015, with activity generally trending downward since then. The most recent year recorded 67 incidents, equating to 74.1% fewer incidents than the 259 recorded in 2015/16, and 31.5% fewer incidents than the ten-year average.

Over the first half of the analysis period, activity typically followed an alternating peak and through pattern, however, activity over the most recent 2 years had been static.

Overall, the winter months accounted for 41.7%, autumn 31.1%, summer 24.1%, with the lowest activity months being the spring season at 3.2%. However, incidents occurred most frequently in the individual months of December (26.1%) and November (18.8%), which combined, accounted for 44.9% of activity.

Whilst the source of a flooding incident may be due to surface water for example, the actual cause of the incident may be due to an event such as heavy rainfall, obstruction or blockage, or structural failure. For instance, the large-scale flooding seen in the village of St Michaels on Wyre during Storm Desmond in December 2015 was due to rising river levels and a structural failure i.e. embankment. Structural failure was a relatively rare event and accounted for just 1.1% of the 881 incidents. Overall, heavy rainfall accounted for 90.60% of the causes, with an obstruction or blockage accounting for just 7.5%. An obstruction or blockage could be caused by drainage issues (blocked roadside drains, culvert etc).

Over the last 10-year period, Lancaster district accounted for the largest number of flooding incidents, recording 190 (21.6% of the total). This was quite distantly followed by West Lancashire with 90 (10.2%) and 87 occurring in Wyre (9.9%). The top four districts Lancaster, West Lancashire, Wyre, and Rossendale accounted for almost 50% of the incidents. Lancaster districts accounted for the largest amount of surface water, rising river levels, and high tide incidents. The high tide incidents were mainly around the Glasson Docks area. There were five reservoir incidents within Chorley district which were from the area north of Anglezarke reservoir.

There were large variations of activity with each district between the years. Lancaster recorded almost 50% (93 incidents) of its activity in 2015/16, with another peak in 2017/18 accounting for an additional 32%. All districts but three had a decreasing trend, with only Blackburn with Darwen, Chorley, and Fylde recording a small increasing trend. During the most recent year, only West  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18-25/26

Area Manager, Matt Hamer introduced Prevention Support Officer (PSO), Paul Slee to Members. He explained that Paul worked in the Central Prevention Team, designed education packages and was the driving catalyst behind the Lancashire Water Safety Partnership.

Prevention Support Officer, Paul Slee provided members with a presentation regarding Water Safety in Lancashire.

Members were advised that water incidents attended* by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service over the past 5 years (01/01/2020 – 30/09/2025) included: -

·         Total number of water incidents attended (non-suicide related) - 283 (2025 – 38 up to 30^th September).

·         Number of casualties rescued from water (inc. fatalities) – 322 (53% were male, 25% female, and 22% were no gender recorded. Where gender was recorded 68% were male and 32% were female).

·         Suicide attempts at water locations – 39 incidents (14% of total number of incidents).

·         Fatalities – 34 (85% male, 12% female, 3% not known – in line with UK data).

·         Suicide fatalities – 5 (100% male) (15% total number of suicide attempts – half of UK percentage).

*It was noted by Members that this did not include coastal incidents.

The districts of Lancaster (almost 25% of the total), Preston, Blackburn with Darwen and Burnley had seen the highest concentration of LFRS attended water incidents. Just over 50% of the water related incidents for October 2024 – September 2025 were linked to flooding in the winter months, mainly in January 2025 all of which were vehicle related. This could be attributed to people trapped on top of vehicles. The busiest months for water related incidents were June, July, and August, although, many incidents still occurred in winter related to ice and driving in darkness.

Members noted that the permeability of soil types across the county could influence the volume of flooding.

The Eastern Area had experienced the most water related fatalities, followed by Southern, Pennine, and Northern (though the latter only included one District – Lancaster). Most fatalities noted on the map in the agenda pack were around rivers in the county. The current year (2025), as confirmed by the Met Office, had the warmest Spring on record and the driest summer on record, which contributed to a high number of fatalities across the country.

An LFRS Incidents – yearly break down was presented to Members.

LFRS Incidents and Fatalities by known age were shown in the slide pack. The top three in all categories were young males, who tended to be risk takers, and young people on holiday. The UK fatalities were also linked to 50–70-year-olds. Some of those figures could be higher as ages weren’t always captured and individuals would be described as middle-aged or elderly. Young males and middle-aged people were the target group for the Service.

Targeting Water Safety Prevention Work (LFRS data 01 January 2020 – 30 September 2025: -

·         Highest Incident Districts - Lancaster (24% of total), Burnley (10%), Preston (10%), BwD (8%).

·         Highest Fatality Districts - Lancaster, Burnley, BwD, West Lancs.

·         Highest Fatality Districts in proportion to number of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19-25/26

The Chair welcomed Kellie Matthews, Senior Operations Manager, North West Fire Control (NWFC) thanked the Members that visited NWFC in October. The Members were given valuable information, had a demonstration of operations at the centre, and staff appreciated them taking time to visit.

Members were provided with a presentation detailing the performance of NWFC during quarter 2 (July – September 2025). Members noted that the full report to accompany the presentation would be circulated outside of the meeting.

Calls for LFRS equated to 25% of the total calls for all 4 services (LFRS, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, and Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service).

Q2 Performance Report Highlights

·         Average mobilisation time to fire related incidents 85 seconds

·         Significant improvement in emergency call answer time (2.2 seconds)

·         Absence at lowest level in 3 years

·         Increase in Control Room competency levels

·         Workforce investment improving retention with zero leavers reported in Q2

·         Increase year on year in participating and facilitating exercises

Number of Emergency Calls

NWFC received 34,471 emergency calls in quarter 2 compared to 32,373 for the same quarter of 2024/25 which represented a year-on-year increase. There had been an increase to the average call duration to 132 seconds with an average mobilisation time to fire related incidents of 85 seconds. There had also been a decrease in emergency call volumes from Q1 to Q2 2025.

Incoming Admin Calls

NWFC had received a decrease in the number of incoming admin calls compared to Q1. Continuous monitoring had taken place throughout 2025/2026 to monitor the greater time commitment on dealing with incoming admin calls and the impact on Control Room Operator Availability.

Admin calls included crews and officers contacting NWFC for either guidance, or to offer advice such as notification of missing equipment, defective resources, liaising with NWFC regarding exercises or resources availability.

Outgoing Admin Calls

There had been a decrease in calls from Q1 to Q2 reflective of the decrease in emergency calls but there had been an increase in the volume of calls year on year. There would be a spike in the number of calls as the number of incidents spiked. The call duration remained consistent.

Incoming Requests to Speak

Incoming requests to speak were when crews had been mobilised to an incident and were communicating with Control Room Operators to share information regarding an incident or to request additional resources. NWFC had received 38,281 transmissions with an average duration for each Request to Speak of 69 seconds. This was equivalent to 733 Control Room Officer hours workload in Q2 and 1/3 of the Control Room, Work activity for Q2. Fire and Rescue Services confirmed that there had been an increase in information passed via radio which had been reflective of operational requirements. NWFC would continue to monitor this. These figures did not include outgoing requests to speak.

Average Time to Answer Emergency Calls

The average time to answer emergency calls was 6.7 seconds which was the best performance since Q1 2024/25, despite a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20-25/26

The report provided an overview of Dynamic Resource Management (DRM) that had recently been implemented within Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS).

LFRS had robust systems in place to monitor, manage, and dynamically deploy fire engines and firefighters to respond to emergencies across Lancashire. There were 58 fire engines and a number of specialist appliances in the county, however some were often unavailable due to many reasons: ongoing incidents; training; maintenance, leave or sickness absence; unavailability of on-call staff; and other operational reasons.

When there was a crewing shortage, steps were taken to keep a fire engine or specialist appliance available, by bringing in firefighters from other stations (this was called detaching) or on overtime. With improved technology and access to more comprehensive data, the Service now had a greater understanding of fire risk across Lancashire. As a result, that approach had been changed to ensure sufficient resources were available in the areas that needed them and reduce unnecessary overtime.

Firefighters who crewed a second fire engine could be detached to maintain the availability of a first fire engine somewhere else, making that fire engine temporarily unavailable. This only occurred when the first fire engine was available as well as other fire engines in the area and this ensured that the Service maintained a balanced level of fire cover across the county.

Dynamic resource management had introduced smarter and more efficient deployment of firefighters based on county-wide risk and was used for advance planning. There were 39 fire stations across Lancashire: 22 of these had at least one wholetime crewed fire engine and 17 had at least one on-call fire engine. Additional wholetime, day-crewed or on-call fire engines were also available at some of those stations which meant they had two fire engines.

There were four fire stations with two wholetime crewed fire engines in the county: Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, and Preston. All four also had other fire stations close by, with additional fire engines ready to respond. Previous policy was that when one of the two fire engines at the four stations with two wholetime engines was unavailable due to training or maintenance, it was not replaced or backfilled. However, if one was unavailable due to a crewing shortage (for example, due to leave or sickness) it was kept available by bringing in firefighters from other stations (this was called detached duties), or on overtime once detached duty options had been exhausted.

On 1 July 2025, the Service changed this approach to ensure sufficient resources were available to cover all risk areas across the county, using the latest technology and data. This provides the most effective and efficient use of resources for all communities across Lancashire. On some occasions, this also reduces costs through overtime requirements. For example, firefighters at the four stations which had two wholetime fire engines could be detached, making the second engine temporarily unavailable, to maintain availability of a first fire engine somewhere else in the county. This was a methodical and strategic decision that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21-25/26

The report provided a comparative analysis of Fire and Rescue incident statistics for Lancashire and England, covering the period from July 2015 to June 2025.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) attended a total of 18,114 incidents in the year ending June 2025, a 7.1% increase from the previous year (16,910 incidents) and a 33.8% increase over ten years. England saw a 5.7% increase over one year and a 25.0% increase over ten years.

Incident Types (2025):-

-        Fires: 30.4% of Lancashire’s incidents (higher than England’s 26.4%).

-        False Alarms: 40.3% in Lancashire (slightly above England’s 39.8%).

-        Non-Fire Incidents: 29.2% in Lancashire (below England’s 33.8%).

Over the decade, Lancashire’s fires as a proportion of incidents fell from 37.1% to 30.4%, while false alarms dropped from 44.7% to 40. Non-fire incidents rose sharply, from 18.2% to 29.2%.

The dry summer of 2025 led to an increase in secondary fires in both Lancashire and England.

Lancashire attended 5,515 fires in 2025, up 33.6% from the previous year. Primary fires increased slightly year-on-year but decreased over ten years. Secondary fires saw a significant rise (58.9% over one year, 30.3% over ten years).

The numbers of false alarms had decreased in Lancashire over the past two years, from 8,774 in 2023 to 7,308 in 2025. Despite fluctuations, false alarms remained a substantial part of activity.

Non-fire incidents had grown steadily, with an 18.8% increase over five years and a 114.2% increase over ten years.

Lancashire’s incident profile broadly mirrored national trends, with some local differences, particularly a lower proportion of non-fire incidents compared to England. The increase in secondary fires during dry periods highlighted the impact of weather on operational demand. The shift in incident types over time suggested evolving challenges for resource allocation and community risk management.

County Councillor G Mirfin inquired about the role of weather forecasting in relation to operational demand and expressed scepticism over the accuracy of some weather warnings. The ACFO explained that when extreme weather was expected, early warnings were shared through various partners, including the Lancashire Resilience Forum (LRF), local wildfire Tactical Advisers, and national resilience networks. A score was generated based on the information received, which then helped determine the Service’s operational status. Additionally, the DCFO advised that the Service received timely updates from the Met Office which enabled preparation for response. It was highlighted that many incidents were influenced by weather and climate conditions.

Resolved:- That the Performance Committee noted the comparative report as a benchmark of incident response activity for the ten-year period July 2015 to June 2025.

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on 11 March 2026 in the Main Conference Room, at Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meetings are:        scheduled for 08 July 2026, and

                                        proposed for 09 September 2026

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on 11 March 2026 at 1000 hours in the Main Conference Room at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meeting dates were noted for 08 July 2026 and agreed for 09 September 2026.