Shropshire fire service is confident over £3m cuts

Senior officers of Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service are confident they can meet targets to cut spending by £3 million.

Members of the county fire authority will be updated on their plans next week, although the fine detail will not be presented until December.

The service is already one of the worst funded in the UK but bosses are currently drawing up budget plans based on a 25 per cent cut in Government grant over the next four years.

The brigade operates on an annual budget of about £21 million.

Of this about £8 million is Government grant and the remaining £13 million is met through a precept on Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council.

But it will not be able to make-up shortfalls in grant because of a freeze on council tax levies.

Sixty firefighters, officers and support staff who are due to leave the county's fire and rescue service over the next four years are unlikely to be replaced and it is proposed to drastically reduce what has proved to be highly successful community safety work.

The Shropshire and Wrekin Fire and Rescue Authority will hear next Thursday that officers are currently analysing the detail of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review announced last week.

The brigade has also held 40 "Public Value Review" sessions, with about 95 percent of staff taking part.

A report says: "The sessions have acted to raise awareness amongst staff of the complexities and likely impact of the recession upon both society and the service.

"Moreover, the sessions have enabled staff to take an active role in determining the priorities of the service and influencing how the budget reductions might best be addressed without unduly compromising 'frontline' services to the community."

The report says the outcomes of the brigade's own review are now in the process of being refined and "aligned" to the Comprehensive Spending Review.

It adds: "At this stage the speculative planning assumption of a 25 per cent grant reduction appears to be consistent with the CSR announcement. Officers are at present confident of meeting reduction targets for the CSR period as currently estimated."

By Dave Morris