Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, County Councillor Holgate welcomed Authority Members and members of the press and public to the virtual committee meeting of the Lancashire Combined Fire Authority.  He advised that in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic the Government had made regulations that enabled virtual meetings.  This meeting was accessible for Committee Members via Microsoft Teams and for members of the press and public via a live webcast on YouTube.

A roll call was undertaken and Members individually confirmed their attendance.

Apologies were received from County Councillor Stephen Clarke.

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.

None received.

RESOLVED: - That the Minutes of the last meeting held on the 16 September 2020 be confirmed as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.

Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Steve Morgan presented the report.  This was the 2nd quarterly report for 2020/21 as detailed in the Risk Management Plan 2017-2022. 

Members considered the Key Performance Indicators that were in positive and negative exception as detailed on pages 26 and 27 of the agenda pack.  This showed 1 positive exception (KPI 1.4, Accidental Dwelling Fires) and 1 negative exception (KPI 4.2.1, Staff Absence – excluding on?call duty system).

Members then examined each indicator in turn as follows:

KPI 1 – Preventing, fires and other emergencies from happening and Protecting, people and property when fires happen

1.1       Risk Map

This indicator measured the fire risk in each Super Output Area.  Risk was determined using fire activity over the previous 3 fiscal years along with a range of demographic data, such as population and deprivation.

The standard was to reduce the risk in Lancashire – an annual reduction in the County risk map score.

The current score 32,448, previous year score 31,816.

1.2       Overall Activity

This indicator measured the number of incidents that the Service attended with one or more pumping appliances.

Quarter 2 activity 4,582, previous year quarter 2 activity 4,544 an increase of 0.84% over the same quarter.

Incidents attended consisted of a myriad of different types.  The report presented a chart which represented the count and percentage that each activity had contributed to the overall quarter’s activity; most notably was that 50% were false alarms.

Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Morgan introduced Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Jon Charters to present information to Members on the current policy position in relation to automatic fire alarms and unwanted fire signals.

Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Charters advised that an unwanted fire signal (UWFS) was “Attendance by one or more Fire Appliances to a premises where, on arrival there was found to be no fire or emergency; where the initial call to North West Fire Control was generated by an Automatic Fire Alarm system (AFA).”  It was noted that the term UWFS was only applied after arrival.

Automatic Fire Alarm systems were typically found in commercial buildings incorporating systems that detected a fire (smoke/heat detectors) and raised the alarm (sounders etc) which might link to other systems such as a sprinkler system.  The Service would receive a call from a variety of sources (ie: telecare provider, fire alarm monitoring organisation, or other monitoring system provider) into North West Fire Control (NWFC) where call challenge procedures were used but could lead to appliance mobilisation.  Where, after attendance and faulty equipment was determined as the cause, the call would be categorised as an UWFS.

The organisational cost of AFAs included: the diversion of essential resources from emergencies; creation of disruption for businesses that employed on-call Firefighters; the risk created to staff and public whilst responding; disruption to community and business safety activities; disruption to operational training; impact on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37/19

Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Steve Morgan presented the report. 

During the summer 2020 an informal position statement on disposable barbecues was agreed by the Chief Fire Officer and the Chairman, which was used widely following the Darwen and Longridge fires.  This called for people to stop using disposable barbecues in the countryside. A number of local and national political leaders took up this call for a ban.

These two large wildfires had a significant impact on performance with a 25% increase in wildfire incidents in 2020 compared to 2019 and a 36% increase in pump deployments, with estimated resourcing costs of approximately £850,000.

It was noted that the National Fire Chiefs Council was also now asking the public to ensure they did their upmost to prevent outdoor fires from occurring. Many outdoor fires started from portable BBQs, litter and campfires. At the current time where fire and rescue services were also working to assist in the Covid-19 response, people were asked to exercise caution and please avoid lighting fires in the countryside.

Lancashire Combined Fire Authority Position Statement

“Lancashire Combined Fire Authority (CFA) is calling for people to stop using disposable barbecues in the countryside to reduce the amount of harm caused by wildfires.  Wildfires are easily started and can spread rapidly putting people, property and infrastructure at risk. The terrain makes them challenging to firefight and demands large amounts of resources from the service and our partners.

Lancashire knows only too well the devastating effects of wildfires following a fire on Winter Hill near Bolton in summer 2018 which destroyed 18 square kilometres of moorland. Despite this, we continue to experience avoidable fires in open spaces across the county, causing long-lasting harm to wildlife, habitats and biodiversity.

The CFA believes that the threat to the environment and our communities can be significantly reduced if people enjoy Lancashire’s great outdoors without using disposable barbecues.”

Members considered whether the position statement should include either option 1: a ban on the sale of disposable BBQs or option 2: a restriction on the use of disposable BBQs in public open spaces – specifically around moorlands and forestation.

Councillor Smith proposed option 1 which was a ban on the sale of disposable BBQs and County Councillor Holgate seconded the motion.  On being put to the vote: 5 Members were in favour; 4 Members were against and 1 Member did not respond.  The motion was therefore CARRIED.

Fire Safety & Business Support Information

It was noted that preventative work would be carried out 1 June 2021 – 30 September 2021, which would focus on reducing moorland and grassland fires.  The objectives of prevention activity were to: i) reduced risk of wildfires during summer period (1 June – 30 Sept 2021); ii) collaborate with partners in key areas; and iii) increase understanding of the risk of wildfires from disposable barbecue, campfire use and discarding of cigarettes and litter.

RESOLVED: - That the report be noted and endorsed including the inclusion in the position statement for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38/19

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on 17 March 2021 – venue to be confirmed.

Further meetings are: scheduled for 30 June 2021 and 15 September 2021 and proposed for 15 December 2021.

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on Wednesday, 17 March 2021 at 1000 hours – venue to be confirmed.

Further meeting dates were noted for 30 June 2021 and 15 September 2021 and agreed for 15 December 2021.