The draft budget announcement indicates that the Government has applied an 8.6% reduction for 2016/17, this equates to £2.5m. There will be further reductions of 10.2%, 4.3% and 1.8% in the following three years.
Chief Fire Officer Lee Howell said: “Clearly this will mean further significant changes to the way we operate as a Service.
“Our priority in everything that we do will always be to improve public and staff safety and we will need to do this within a context of a reduced budget.”
Changes to the Service’s budget which will go to the Fire Authority in February 2016 include the following:
The Service will increase funding during the next four years for the replacement of operational vehicles and its ageing building stock.
Chief Fire Officer Howell added: “We made some difficult decisions in 2013 and this has meant we have met the savings required to date. We have a plan for the next four years to deliver the savings required but it will require effective management, communication and planning to deliver these real savings.”
