At today’s meeting of the North Wales Fire Authority, Councillor Peter Lewis, newly re-elected as the Deputy Chair of the Authority, presented the Executive Panel’s recent recommendation for the next phase of developing the Authority’s Improvement and Well-being Plan 2019/20.

A copy of the report can be seen here.

Members went on to agree to consult publicly over the summer 2018 on a financial strategy based on either:

a) increasing the combined total contribution from the local

authorities by an estimated £1,893,000 in 2019/20 and so

retaining current levels of fire and rescue services;

OR

b) increasing the combined total contribution from the local

authorities by slightly less than £1,893,000 in 2019/20 and so

retaining the main fire and rescue services in North Wales but

requiring some savings to be made.

Members rejected a third option of significant reductions in fire and rescue services, as set out in paragraph 13 of the report (Appendix 8).

However members considered it was important that the consultation provided detailed information on the Fire Authority’s funding arrangements and also the reasons for excluding large scale service reductions.

Information on the public consultation will be available on the Fire and Rescue Service website in due course.