Agenda item

The Chairman of the Committee, County Councillor Holgate thanked those who attended the first virtual meeting of the Committee which he thought went particularly well.

County Councillor Riggott raised for the attention of the full Authority that on page 28 (resolution 22/19 refers) and page 29 under Key Performance Indicator 1.3 for Accidental Dwelling Fires that the reporting of comparable activity from the previous year had been incorrectly stated as a decrease which was on both occasions an increase.  He felt that scrutiny was important and was concerned why this had happened.  In response CC Holgate thanked CC Riggott for his meticulous reading of the reports and asked officers to make sure this typographical error did not reoccur.  The Clerk confirmed that amended Measuring Performance reports would be available on the Performance page of the Service website.

County Councillor Pattison referred to the work of the Lancashire Road Safety Partnership detailed on page 35 particularly in relation to child pedestrian training at reception, year 1 and year 2 at almost every primary school in the county. CC Pattison had receive a number of concerns from head teachers and parents who (now due to covid-19) were not able to drop the children off in the playground at school and this was leading to increased risk on the roadside.  CC Pattison queried whether the training could be increased to all children.  In response CC Holgate felt it was appropriate to work in partnership with the Police to provide guidance to head teachers and parents to drop off children in as safe a manner as possible.  The Assistant Chief Fire Officer reassured Members that this would be on the agenda for the next meeting of the Lancashire Road Safety Partnership executive in October.

In relation to the overall activity detailed on page 29, County Councillor Clarke was concerned that 47% were false alarms and he had raised the point at the Committee meeting that repeat offenders should be charged a cost for the turnout or face a penalty.  CC Holgate confirmed that the procedures used at North West Fire Control did filter out a lot of false alarm calls and agreed that businesses should be supported to ensure their equipment was adequate particularly at this challenging time as many tried to keep their businesses afloat.

In response to questions raised by County Councillor Britcliffe, the Assistant Chief Fire Officer confirmed that the classification of a call as a False Alarm came after attendance when the cause could be determined.  These were most commonly either person error or most predominantly, equipment failure (which was classed in the incident recording system as an unwanted fire signal from an automated fire alarm system).  The Service had not issued a financial penalty to date but this was something that could be evaluated.  The Service did however use the Fire Service Order legislation to mandate premises to make changes to their fire risk assessment and/or equipment and the Service did follow these up.  In addition, if 2 calls were received concerning a building this trigged an evaluation of that building. He advised that there were repeat offenders and some high risk significant buildings where changes following building work could see an increase in calls however in the main the number of repeat offenders were very small across the commercial premises in Lancashire.

CC Britcliffe asked that a detailed report be provided to an Authority meeting.  The Authority Chairman stated that previously when this concern had been discussed at the Performance Committee, Members expressed that the Service did respond to these calls as there could be a serious fire however, it was felt that this issue could be looked at again to see if any improvements could be made to ensure building owners carried out their duties.

CC Eaton expressed concern that while the Service was dealing with a false alarm there could be a genuine fire elsewhere and any delay could be at the cost of someone’s life.

CC Holgate agreed that the Performance Committee would commission officers to bring a detailed report to a future meeting that explored potential changes to response arrangements which could result in a reduction of attendance at false alarm calls. 

RESOLVED: - That:

i)             A detailed report be provided to a future Performance Committee meeting that supported the reduction of attendance to false alarm calls; and

ii)            The proceedings of the Performance Committee held on 24 June 2020 be noted and endorsed.