Agenda item - Report of the Chief Fire Officer for East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service

The Chief Fire Officer will address the Council on the work of the East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service.

4.1             The Mayor welcomed the Chief Fire Officer for East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service to the meeting and invited him to address the Council.

4.2             The Chief Fire Officer thanked the Mayor and the Council for the opportunity to attend the meeting and outline the work of the Fire & Rescue Service and its objectives in the year ahead.  He noted that a lot of excellent preventative and community safety work was being undertaken in the city and welcomed the ability to work with the council in delivering some of that work.  He also noted that the Fire & Rescue Service and Fire Authority were facing various pressures and that there would be a need to look at how services were maintained and provided in the future.  However, he also wanted to reassure councillors that there was no intention to reduce the number of fire stations in the city.

4.3             The Chief Fire Officer stated that he had been discussing the potential to utilise the use of public buildings more effectively with partner organisations such as the Police and Ambulance services and that he wanted to explore this approach further with the City Council.  He believed that all public services faced difficult times and the potential to use facilities across services was something that might help meet some of the pressures.  He also acknowledged the environmental and sustainability work and aims of the council and stated that the Fire Service wished to support those aims e.g. by using compressed foam to tackle fires and seeking to enable fire vehicles to be more environmentally friendly.  He hoped that the future would see more collaborative working between the Fire Service and the City Council and thanked the Council for enabling him to attend the meeting.

4.4             The Mayor thanked the Chief Fire Officer for attending the meeting.