There is a government consultation on closer working between 'blue light' services
Contained within it is the possibility that the Police and Crime commissioner takes over the Avon Fire Service.
This is the response from myself and Gus Hoyt.....
This response comes from Councillors
Charlie Bolton and Gus Hoyt, serving as Green Party members on the Avon Fire
Authority, and also as councillors on Bristol City Council.
As Greens we are appalled at the cuts
which have been and are still being implemented on the Fire service. The Fire
service saves lives, is highly regarded and we believe has been under
sustained, ideologically motivated attack. We believe that the government
should commit now to halting cuts to this valued and vital service. We further
believe that the Fire Service, along with Police needs to be properly funded.
As Green Party members of the Avon Fire Authority,
we register our opposition to the possibility of a merger of the authority with
the Police Authority.
We support many of the reasons given by the Avon
Fire Authority in its submission also opposing the possibility of a merger,
namely:
- Existing governance arrangements work well
- Boundaries between the authorities do not match
- There will be difficulties aligning council tax amounts
- There are differing electoral arrangements in place over the area
- There is already some effective collaborative working between authorities, however the proposal will make it harder to form other working partnerships
- Practical issues merging back office functions which are in different arrangements (ie outsourced or not) with different contractual arrangements
- Practical staffing issues re TUPE
In addition to these, we believe that combining the
authorities would also require a significant beefing up of scrutiny functions
to meet any new organisation (unless the intention is to dispense with such
democratic oversite).
We further draw to the your attention to the fact
that there are many examples of attempts to merge systems, computerised or
other – which intend to make economies of scale – end up either failing
completely, or result in a more complex (and costly) solution. We further point
out to those suggesting ‘private sector management methods’ that HBOS and RBS
were private businesses, using such techniques - who failed
in spectacular fashion. In other words, there are big dangers as well as
opportunities.
We point out that merging organisations can
frequently lead to additional bureaucracy, and which in itself leads to
inefficiencies. One of the benefits of the current organisation of the Fire
Authority is its relatively simple structure which allows it to concentrate on
its ‘core business’ of keeping people safe and putting out fires. A merger
could jeopardise this.
Finally, we – as Greens – support decentralisation
of power to the lowest level. A merger, and in particular, a merger of the
power structure represents a centralisation of power which we oppose.
