It may have past you by but were you aware that your council has voted to reduce Norwich’s fire cover along with cuts and damaging restructuring across the rest of the county?

Were you even aware that there is a public consultation going on? No we weren’t either until this morning.

According to Fire Brigade Management

"Norfolk is one of the safest counties in England and our fire and rescue service is helping make it even safer. Since 2005 the number of significant fires in Norfolk is down 11% and the total number of incidents our firefighters attend is down 8%."

Now that is fantastic we hear you say, but wait for it…this therefore justifies losing one fire engine and a whole crew from the city of Norwich alone.

It is pretty evident to most of us that these ‘consultations’ are nothing more than a game council plays with us. If nobody knows about the consultation, nobody opposes it, therefore there’s no argument, the cuts go ahead.

Apparently the public have been well informed of the proposed changes, yet we haven’t been able to find anybody aware about this.

We’ve decided to help Norfolk Fire Brigade management out on this score.

You will find all the proposals both in summary draft form here

 http://norfolkfireservice.gov.uk/uploaded_files/IRMP%20Draft%20Summary%20Document.pdf)

and in full document form here

 http://norfolkfireservice.gov.uk/uploaded_files/Safety%20Plan%202011%202014.pdf

Please click here to take part in the planned consultation you knew nothing about..

 https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Norfolk_Fire_Authority_Safety_Plan_Consultation

But before you do lets leave you with a few words from those who know best, the men and women on the ground who actually get their hands dirty shall we…



"Nationally, reduced call volumes have been used as a justification for reductions in fire cover. As a result, the ratio of deaths and injuries to fires, the rate of injuries to firefighters and the cost of fire to the economy has increased.

NF&RS intend to use the same justification to reduce fire cover in the Norwich area, even though the volume of calls to incidents which pose a risk to life and property has not decreased significantly.

The Norwich area contains significant concentrations of high risk groups and economically important buildings. There is also a high rate of primary fires, dwelling fires and RTCs in the area. These factors combine to indicate that Norwich is a higher risk area.

The reduction in fire cover will result in a delay in the provision of sufficient resources to safely resolve incidents. Therefore, the lives of the public and of firefighters will be put at greater risk. Peoples homes and businesses, as well as the area‟s heritage buildings, will become more likely to be significantly damaged in the event of fire.

Removing a crew from the Norwich area will limit the provision of preventative work such as fitting smoke alarms in peoples‟ homes, offering fire safety advice and road casualty reduction initiatives.

NF&RS already provides very good value for money, operating within tight financial limits for a number of years. Any further reduction in resourcing will cause a reduction in safety, leading to the same results as have been seen nationally.

Norfolk Fire Brigade Union
Norwich Branch
Response to Proposals for Integrated Risk
Management Plan 2011/14, Recommendation 7"




There’s only one fair response to give the Council and Fire Brigade Management to these proposed changes and that’s a firm and resolute ‘Jog On!‘

Please fill in the online ‘consultation’ and support the men and women of the FBU! You just might need them one day…

 http://norfolknonaligned.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/more-consultations-nonsense-this-time-from-fire-brigade-management/