Agenda item

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer presented the report to members.

At the Lancashire Combined Fire Authorities Annual General Meeting on Monday 15 June 2026, a paper was brought in relation to piloting a change to the crewing system at Fleetwood fire station from the current wholetime 2-2-4 duty system to a Flexible Day Crewing system (resolution 13-26/27).

The Combined Fire Authority approved the request that the Chair of the Authority and the Chief Fire Officer take a final decision on the implementation of the Fleetwood Flexible Day Crewing pilot, taking account of consultation outcomes and further analysis.

It was noted in that paper that a public consultation on this proposed change had started on 1 June and ran until 30 June. Decisions on whether or not to run public consultations ordinarily sat within the remit of the Planning Committee. However, as this pilot, if it was to be effective, needed to be implemented as soon as possible, waiting until the date of this Planning committee meeting to seek authorisation for the public consultation was not feasible. As such, the urgent business procedure was used to seek approval for the public consultation. The Chair and vice-Chair of the full Authority, and the Chair of the Planning committee were all consulted by the Chief Fire Officer and all consented to the running of the public consultation. In accordance with the urgent business procedure, this report on the use and outcome of that procedure was being brought to the next committee meeting for information.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer provided an update that following the public consultation, where the service had received around 150 responses, and carried out various local engagement with crews, the public and local Elected Members, including the Local MP, the Chief Fire Officer and the Chair of the authority had agreed the progression of the pilot with frequent reviews being undertaken to understand the impact. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained that the main feedback received as part of the consultation related to response times to incidents and that around 150 responses had been received and many of them citing concerns over longer attendance times at night. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained that these responses were expected, as ultimately it would be viewed by many as a reduction in service; however he also explained that the data presented to the Combined Fire Authority recently, included comparisons to risk levels in other areas of the county that had a similar crewing model in place, to what was being proposed as part of the Fleetwood pilot. He also explained that the pilot had been supported by the Fire Brigades Union and staff that live in Fleetwood but worked at other stations in the county, who would likely transfer to the station and trial system.

Councillor G Baker commented that the public appeared to feel that this was a backwards step, he also advised that he had been contacted by a reporter for comment on the pilot. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained that there would be no change to the number of fire engines at Fleetwood Fire Station and a fire engine would still be available at all times with other fire engines also available in the wider area, including Bispham. Five comparable stations across the service were operating the Flexible Day Crewing system effectively and should the pilot be unsuccessful the station would revert back to the previous duty system. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer emphasised that the pilot was not focusing on efficiency savings but on redistributing firefighters across the service, better aligning resources to risk and demand. He added that there would be a few minutes delay in response to incidents overnight but there would still be a very quick response.

Councillor G Baker stated that he thought there was a challenge with recruiting firefighters and asked if there was a policy in relation to rehousing firefighters. The Deputy Chief Fire Officer explained that there was a relocation allowance scheme that could be used if needed, however the service had recently had over 1000 applications for its wholetime firefighters recruitment campaign, but the main recruitment challenge was relating to on-call firefighters. He explained that the Flexible Day Crewing system was a Wholetime system and also attracted additional allowances including a housing allowance, retainer fee and call out fees in the evenings.

Resolved: That the committee noted the report.