Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, Mark Isherwood AM, has called on the Minister for Local Government to respond to the concerns of both North Wales Fire and Rescue Service and South Wales Fire and Rescue Service regarding the Welsh Government’s White Paper on the ‘Reform of Fire and Rescue Authorities in Wales’.
Authorities were consulted on the document, and speaking in the Assembly Chamber yesterday, Mr Isherwood highlighted a number of concerns raised by both North Wales Fire and Rescue Service and South Wales Fire and Rescue Service in their responses.
He said: “As the North Wales Fire and Rescue Service response states, ‘Given that the Welsh Government's case for change is predicated on a belief that the arrangements that have produced excellent results in the past will not be effective in future, there is remarkably little in the White Paper to substantiate that belief. There's nothing, for example, to indicate that current arrangements are beginning to cause standards to deteriorate or performance to wane, or that they're any less able to meet challenges, innovate or change than they were when they were established in 1996.'
“They also said that the proposed objectives seek, somewhat bizarrely, to preserve the current high standards of Fire and Rescue Services by reforming the arrangements that have produced them, that the White Paper lacks coherence in that it proposes solutions to problems that it accepts do not exist, and that the White Paper speaks of a perception that fire and Rescue Authorities are unaccountable.
“They stated: 'As for public accountability, we do not accept that Fire and Rescue Authorities are unaccountable. Our meetings are open to the public and are now webcast so they can be watched remotely, spending and other plans are published annually, people have the facility to make requests under Freedom of Information legislation, and the Service goes out of its way to meet with representative groups and to take an active part in collaborations with other public, voluntary and public sector organisations’. And it goes on to financial information being accessible and so on. I appreciate that you can't prejudge your response to the consultation, but are you at least sympathetic to the concerns that are here being raised?”
Mr Isherwood added:
“It's not just the North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, because the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service consultation response stated that ‘despite assertions to the contrary in the White Paper, existing members of the Fire and Rescue Authority do remain accountable to their home authorities over the manner in which they discharge their role’ and ‘they are also accountable to the electorate through the annual reports they prepare’.
Mr Isherwood also referred to the statement by the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service that they strongly support the wish to avoid any adverse changes to front-line operations or resources, and that it's their opinion that this is not achievable through some of the solutions proposed. They fear budget mechanisms that allow final decisions to be taken outside of the Authority legal entity could very likely cause potentially significant changes to front-line service delivery and resources, to the detriment of the communities they serve, and raise interesting legal and liability implications should levels of funding prove insufficient or result in adverse consequences.
He added: “So, clearly, this goes beyond just organisational proposals, but more deeply into financial considerations and potentially legal considerations”.
