Cumbria County Council’s cabinet has formally stated it does not support a proposal to transfer the fire and rescue service to the police and crime commissioner.
The scheme was one of two ideas that were the subjects of public consultation that ended yesterday – as the county looks ahead to the introduction of two unitary authorities from April 2023.
Crime commissioner Peter McCall was leading a consultation on would see a combined fire and rescue authority for the whole of Cumbria created.
In a business case discussing the two proposals, Mr McCall said creating a police, fire and crime commissioner would give greater certainty about the intended organisation at an earlier stage and was less likely to be disruptive.
“It should help to maintain and accelerate the good collaboration that already takes place between the blue-light services, and it [the PFCC model] should be in a stronger position to address the financial challenges that will face Cumbria’s fire and rescue service in the next few years,” he said.
“This reflects a combination of lower estimated costs of running the service year to year, and lower implementation costs.”
An alternative option for future governance of the fire service would see it split into two at the same time as Cumbria’s two unitary authorities are created.
But, at a meeting of the county’s cabinet on Thursday, Stewart Young, leader of the county council, told councillors that moving the fire service into the hands of the PCC would mean incurring additional costs that would necessitate service cuts.
“The county council cannot support this proposal,” he told the meeting at the County Offices in Kendal.
In a letter to Cllr Young last year, Lord Stephen Greenhalgh, minister of state for building fire and safety, said the Home Office did not want to see the fire service split and that the PFCC model was preferred.
Cllr Young responded to Lord Greenhalgh, saying in a letter that the PFCC model would cause massive disruption while putting key public services at risk.
