A partial u-turn on proposals for Spalding Fire Station would see it remain crewed seven days a week, however its full time firefighters would be stopped from carrying out night shifts.
Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue say the money it will save on paying that overtime will allow it to recruit 20 more such recruits in the county, at least one of which is likely to be in the town.
Following the publication of that article though, the public announcement of the proposal was delayed by Lincolnshire County Council which oversees the service locally.
The Voice understands that last Friday (July 31) firefighters were called to another meeting where the new proposals were announced to staff.
Today (Monday, August 3) the county council has publicly released its new plan where it is now proposing Spalding alongside Boston, Gainsborough, Lincoln North, Louth, Skegness and Sleaford ‘continue to operate a seven-day, day crewed system, with wholetime firefighters available to respond throughout the day, seven days a week’.
The announcement says ‘these fire stations would continue to be operated by on-call firefighters at night in the same way as all our fire stations across Lincolnshire’ though a Frequently Asked Questions document provided with the announcement outlines how full time firefighters will no longer be allowed to carry out the night shifts they do currently.
The authority says these night shifts are ‘voluntary’ and stopping them would provide ‘more robust shift arrangements and greater consistency in availability across the county’.
“Wholetime firefighters receive an additional pay allowance of 20 per cent for providing on-call cover at night,” the document states. “The 20 per cent pay uplift is applied to a legacy duty system, which means that wholetime firefighters are on-call continuously for up to 120 hours.
“As a result of changes to work methods and the law several years ago, this additional commitment must be voluntary.
“This means that this level of cover can’t be guaranteed. This proposal aims to use these funds more effectively to guarantee cover when we need it most.”
The original proposals presented to staff two weeks ago proposed upgrading Grantham and Boston to 24 hour availability, however the new proposals announced today are now suggesting only Grantham is upgraded. That would be where the majority of the new full time recruits would go.
The new proposals are also more vague on where specialist teams will be based.
The old ones said that ‘key specialist response capabilities’ would move to the new ’24/7 wholetime’ stations which was thought to mean Spalding losing specialist boat and water teams.
Documents included with the new proposals though say: “The proposal aims to align the higher priority capabilities to the 2-2-4 (Lincoln South and Grantham where they will work two days and two nights on, then four days off) duty fire stations.
“This is where we can guarantee 24hr availability. The remaining specialist capabilities will be based across the service where risk and demand are the greatest.
“These specialist2resources will continue to be based at a mixture of our on-call and wholetime stations.”
On call firefighters (part time staff that also have other jobs), including those based at Spalding, Holbeach, Long Sutton and Crowland, will not be subject to any procedural changes, however if the proposals are passed, they will be relied upon for call outs at night.
On restricting full time firefighters to day shifts in the likes of Spalding, the county council documents state: “Our data shows we have the greatest numbers of incidents during the daytime hours. This is mainly because this is the time when people are awake and busy, going about their work and using the roads.”
Mark Baxter, chief fire officer at Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue, said: “It’s important that we continue to evolve our response model to reflect the changing risks, demand and operational challenges we face as a fire service.
“The work we’ve undertaken through this recent review has helped us identify what steps we could take towards a more sustainable response model for the future, which is supported by years of evidence and response data.
“These proposals would strengthen wholetime firefighter numbers, retain seven-day wholetime cover at all existing wholetime stations, increase our response capabilities in and around Grantham, and increase our overall resilience.
“However, this is just a proposal. It’s important to say that no final decision has been made. We want to hear the views of our communities, partners and stakeholders before any changes are implemented.”
The consultation on the proposal is now open and runs until August 23 at www.letstalk.lincolnshire.gov.uk/response-review
A county council spokesman said: “All feedback will be considered before any final recommendations are made later this year.”
