East Sussex Fire Authority
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
EAST SUSSEX FIRE AUTHORITY THURSDAY 4 FEBRUARY 2010 AT 10.00 HOURS MEMBERS East Sussex County Council (12) Councillors Fawthrop, Freebody, Gadd, Healy, Heaps, Howson, Kenward, Livings, Ost, Scott, Sparks and Thomas Brighton and Hove Council (6) Councillors Carden, Harmer-Strange, Kemble (Chairman), Marsh, Pidgeon and Rufus. ****************** You are required to attend this meeting to be held at Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, 20 Upperton Road, Eastbourne at 10.00 a.m. AGENDA 394. To (a) confirm all participating Members have undertaken to observe the Authority’s Code of Conduct, (b) check if any wish to amend their written declarations of interests under Part 3 of the Code and (c), in relation to matters on the agenda, seek declarations of any personal or personal & prejudicial interests under Part 2 of the Code. 395. Apologies for absence. 396. Notification of items which the Chairman considers to be urgent and proposes to take at the end of the agenda/Chairman’s Business. (Any Members wishing to raise urgent items are asked, wherever possible, to notify the Chairman before the start of the meeting. In so doing they must state the special circumstances which they consider justify the matter being considered urgently). 397. To consider any public questions or petitions. 398. Non-confidential minutes of the meeting held on 14 January 2010 (copy attached). 1 399. Callover. CALLOVER: The Chairman will call the item numbers of the remaining items on the open agenda. Each item which is called by any member shall be reserved for debate. The Chairman will then ask the Fire Authority to adopt without debate the recommendations and resolutions contained in the relevant reports for those items which have not been called. 400. Note of the Policy & Resources Panel meeting held since the last meeting of the Fire Authority – report of Clerk (copy attached). 401. Regional Management Board Issues – report of the Chief Fire Officer & Chief Executive. a) Regional Management Board Issues including minutes of meeting held on 27 January 2010 – report of the Chairman (copy to follow). 402. Callover for Panel Meetings – report of the Clerk to the Fire Authority. 403. Member Lead Arrangements – Quarterly Update – report of the Clerk to the Fire Authority. 404. Fire Authority Service Planning Processes for 2010/11 and beyond – joint report of the Chief Fire Officer & Chief Executive and Treasurer (copy attached). Part A Draft Annual Plan 2010/11 Part B Draft 2010/11 Revenue Budget and Capital Programme 405. Emerging Regional Harmonisation of Scales of Fees and Charges – report of the Chief Fire Officer & Chief Executive (copy attached). 406. Fire Authority Treasury Management Strategy for 2010/11 – report of the Treasurer (copy attached). 407. Progress update on Current Fire Authority Business Issues – report of the Chief Fire Officer & Chief Executive (copy attached). 408. Quarterly Report (October to December 2009) – report of the Chief Fire Officer & Chief Executive (copy attached). 409. Fire Authority and Panel Meetings The Fire Authority is asked to confirm the following dates: Fire Authority meetings at 10.30 hours unless otherwise stated: 03 June 2010 09 September 2010 09 December 2010 13 January 2011 to be confirmed 2 Panel Meetings 18 March 2010 Scrutiny & Audit Panel – for External Audit purposes – and Policy & Resources mid May 2010 Way Forward Working Group – TBA 20 May 2010 Scrutiny & Audit, Policy & Resources and Standards Panels 24 June 2010 Scrutiny & Audit Panel 15 July 2010 Scrutiny & Audit, Policy & Resources and Standards Panels 02 September 2010 Policy & Resources and Standards Panel 23 September 2010 Scrutiny & Audit Panel 18 November 2010 Policy & Resources, Scrutiny & Audit and Standards 06 January 2011 Policy & Resources, Scrutiny & Audit and Standards – to be confirmed Commencement times for these Panels, to be notified in advance of the meetings, are generally likely to be: Way Forward Working Group 09.00; Scrutiny & Audit 10.00; Policy & Resources 11.00; and Standards 14.00 hours. 410. Exclusion of the Press and Public. To consider whether, in view of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, the press and public should be excluded from the remainder of the meeting on the grounds that, if the public and press were present, there would be disclosure to them of exempt information. NOTE: Any item appearing in the confidential part of the Agenda states in its heading the category under which the information disclosed in the report is confidential and therefore not available to the public. A list and description of the exempt categories are available for public inspection at East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service HQ, 20 Upperton Road, Eastbourne and at Brighton and Hove Town Halls. 411. Confidential minutes of the meeting held on 14 January 2010 (copy attached). (Exempt paragraph 3 of the Local Government Act 1972). 412. Confidential note of the Policy & Resources Panel meeting held since the last meeting of the Fire Authority – report of the Clerk (copy attached). (Exempt categories under paragraphs 3 and 7 of the Local Government Act 1972). ABRAHAM GHEBRE-GHIORGHIS Monitoring Officer East Sussex Fire Authority c/o Brighton & Hove City Council 3 4 Agenda Item No.398 EAST SUSSEX FIRE AUTHORITY Minutes of the meeting of the East Sussex Fire Authority held at East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, 20 Upperton Road, Eastbourne at 11.00 hours on Thursday 14 January 2010. Present: Councillors Carden, Fawthrop, Freebody, Gadd, Harmer-Strange, Healy, Heaps, Howson, Kemble (Chairman), Kenward, Livings, Ost, Pidgeon, Rufus, Scott, Sparks and Thomas. 381. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST 381.1 a. It was noted that all participating Members had undertaken to observe the Authority’s Code of Conduct. b. It was noted that no Member wished to amend their written declarations of interests under Part 3 of the Code. c. It was noted that, in relation to matters on the agenda, Councillor Scott declared a personal interest as his brother-in-law works for East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service. No other declarations of personal or prejudicial interest were made under Part 2 of the Code. 382. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE 382.1 Apologies were received from Councillor Marsh and Mrs Redman. 383. URGENT ITEMS AND CHAIRMAN’S BUSINESS 383.1 Stonewall Index 383.1.1 The Chairman announced that Mick Feather, Equality & Diversity Manager and Yannick Dubois, Chair of the Service’s LGBT Network had attended a reception for the Stonewall Index for the top employers. He was delighted to report that East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service had made 67th place, marking its entry into the top 100 for the first time and was the most improved fire & rescue service having moved up from 211th. The Chairman acknowledged the hard work of Mick, Yannick, staff in the LGBT network and in the Organisational & Development Team on this achievement. 383.2 Brighton and Hove Equality and Human Rights Charter 383.2.1 On Tuesday 12 January 2010, Cheryl Rolph attended the launch of the Brighton & Hove and Human Rights Charter to which she was a signatory to the pledge and Charter. Councillor Dee Simson, who had led on the initiative, made specific mention of the work of the fire & rescue service in her opening of the launch, identifying what can be done and is being done and complemented the work of Keith Ring, his Borough team and stations for the achievements in the past twelve months. 5 383.2.2 The regional representative from the Equality and Human Rights Commission commended the work of all the partners commenting that equality and disadvantaged groups present deep seated and complex issues which agencies alone cannot solve, but working together in partnership would bring benefits and improvements. The Chairman reported that he was pleased that the Service had signed up to the Charter showing senior level commitment and that he was delighted with the compliments paid to staff working in Brighton & Hove. 384. TO CONSIDER PUBLIC QUESTIONS AND PETITIONS, IF ANY 384.1 The following question was received from Mr C Scholes of 87 Maldon Road, Brighton and the reply is set out in Appendix A to the minutes. 384.2 “Can you explain specifically why Preston Circus is no longer fit for purpose and is the real reason ESFRS is blocking local community groups from using the upper floors of the station so they can pursue the ‘not fit for purpose’ agenda?” 384.3 RESOLVED – That the Monitoring Officer in consultation with the Chief Fire Officer and Chief Executive review the relevant Standing Order on how Public Questions are reported to the Fire Authority for earliest consideration. 385. MINUTES 385.1 RESOLVED – That the non-confidential Minutes of the meeting held on 10 December 2009 be approved and signed by the Chairman. 386. CALLOVER 386.1 RESOLVED – That all items should be debated. 387. NOTE OF THE POLICY & RESOURCES, SCRUTINY & AUDIT AND STANDARDS PANEL MEETINGS HELD SINCE THE LAST MEETING OF THE FIRE AUTHORITY 387.1 Due to the postponement of Panel meetings due to have been held on 7 January 2010, the notes of the Policy & Resources meeting would be reported to the next meeting of the Fire Authority. The notes of the Scrutiny & Audit and Standards Panel meetings would be reported once they had been held. 387.2 RESOLVED – That the report be noted. 388. FIRE AUTHORITY CONSULTATION AND ENGAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS 388.1 The Fire Authority considered a report of the Chief Fire Officer & Chief Executive that advised the Panel of the current and proposed arrangements for consultation and engagement activities relating to the Service Planning and Community Risk Management proposals. (Copy in Minute Book). 6 388.2 It was reported that there were two main consultation and engagement processes carried out during 2009/10. The first related to the 2010/11 Service Planning arrangements.