Fire alliance “pre-nup”

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Friday, 14 December 2018 10:58

By Alex Moore - Local Democracy Reporter

Shropshire Fire Service’s alliance with its Hereford and Worcester neighbours is different to the now-defunct police alliance, and very unlikely to collapse in the same way, a committee has heard.

Shropshire Chief Fire Officer Rod Hammerton said there is no “pre-nup”, but the service has learned from the acrimonious split between West Mercia Police and Warwickshire Police.

The fire alliance is more limited than the police alliance, and has a top-level governing committee to provide “arbitration”.

West Mercia’s deputy commissioner Tracey Onslow warned that it won’t be plain sailing – “like in any good marriage, there are issues that can arise”.

In the autumn, Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service agreed to enter a “strategic fire alliance”, and a report by Chf Off Hammerton pointed out that the alliance has just three main priority areas; fire control, risk management planning and ICT.

He said: “These are, in themselves, quite broad-ranging.

“It is accepted that we shouldn’t stretch ourselves at the moment. We don’t want to over-stretch our capacity.”

West Mercia Police and Warwickshire police entered into a deal in 2012, but, in October this year, West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion announced he was withdrawing his force from it, to the surprise of his counterpart.

Mr Campion argued the alliance was imbalanced and unfair, as his force were expected to take a 50:50 role in decision-making but had a bigger population and had to disproportionately share resources.

Deputy PCC Tracey Onslow asked Chf Off Hammerton: “When these things start out, they are generally consensual. But is there any process for arbitration?

“Like in any good marriage, there are issues that can arise.

“Especially around the ’50:50 basis’, have you had a chance to meet with (West Mercia Police Chief Constable) Anthony Bangham about that?”

Chf Off Hammerton said he had taken the police case into consideration.

“I wouldn’t call it a ‘pre-nup’, but we are going into it with our eyes wide open, and the way you are managing the police situation has been useful to us to see that an alliance has a lifetime,” he said.

“How you go into it is one thing, but how you make it an enduring relationship is another.”

He said the newly-established “strategic alliance board” – which consists of the chair and vice-chair from each authority and both brigades’ chief fire officers, and had its first meeting two days earlier – would handle “arbitration”, at least initially.

Comparing the police alliance and the new fire alliance, he said: “We’re starting from a different position. We’re not looking for it to be an all-consuming partnership. This is an alliance of parts.”

Chf Off Hammerton and Ms Onslow were speaking at a meeting of the Shropshire and Wrekin Fire and Rescue Authority, held at the brigade’s Shrewsbury headquarters.

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