Fire chiefs will continue their court battle to resist being absorbed into a combined fire-and-police authority, after a judge gave them the green light to continue their judicial review.
Lawyers for the Shropshire fire brigade will spend the next three months preparing for their day in court – unless the West Merica Police and Crime Commissioner “backs off”, as the committee chairman suggested.
Earlier this year, then Home Secretary Amber Rudd approved West Mercia PCC John Campion’s proposal to take control of Shropshire’s fire and rescue service.
By giving the go-ahead, she was implicitly agreeing that the move was “in the interests of economy, efficiency and effectiveness” – the tests set out by law.
Shropshire and Wrekin Fire and Rescue Authority asked for a judicial review of this decision, and authority clerk Jonathan Eatough gave an update on its progress when it met at Shrewsbury Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters (on October 10).
Mr Eatough said the authority’s lawyers had initially appealed on four grounds. In the High Court, Mrs Justice Farbey allowed two to proceed.
“The first of these was on the basis that there are statutory tests: the interests of economy and efficiency, and effectiveness,” he said. “Our grounds are that they had to be considered separately, but that the Home Secretary lumped them together.”
He added that the fire authority believed the three factors should have been considered individually with each having to pass the test. Mrs Rudd’s decision letter, he said, did not make it clear whether she did this or considered them together and on balance.
Mr Eatough said the second accepted ground was that the Home Secretary did not properly obtain an independent assessment of the effect the transfer might have on public safety.
The authority’s two rejected grounds were that the Home Secretary may have misunderstood an accountant’s report into public safety implications and that Mr Campion’s own consultation was not suitably rigorous.
Councillor Eric Carter (Conservative, Newport South and East, Telford and Wrekin Concil), who chairs the 17-member fire authority, thanked Mr Eatough for his update, and added: “If the PCC decides he wants to save face, perhaps he can back off. He hasn’t got the public behind him, no matter what he thinks.”
The fire authority’s judicial review application has been listed for a one-day hearing. No date has yet been set for this.
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