Future looks brighter for fire brigade in South Yorkshire following a decade of cuts

Senior officers had feared the only way to balance the books would have been to cut numbers crewing – or ‘riding’ – fire trucks from five to four as a matter of routine, a move strongly resisted by the Fire Brigades Union on safety grounds.

But since then it has become increasingly likely the Government will plug a multi-million pound pensions black hole next year, a cost which could have fallen on the brigade’s governing body, South Yorkshire Fire Authority.

In addition, indications are that next year the service will get its best cash award from the Government in a decade.

Taken together, those factors mean the service should be able to maintain current staffing arrangements though authority members have been warned against a recruitment drive until more clarity emerges on future finances, expected next Autumn.

That is important because at present more than half the trucks which should be turned out with five firefighters on board only have four, due to issues including sickness.

So while a recruitment course for 18 firefighters is planned for next summer, the authority has been advised to focus on getting those who should be available to work back to fitness as a priority.

A problem with recruiting fresh staff is that employing a new firefighter is a 40 year commitment, meaning if financial pressures increase in future a service with a workforce larger than necessary will have few options for savings.

Fire service official Stuart Booth told authority members “significant risks” remained.

“We have a one year settlement. We are only likely to find out about the next three or four by December 2020.

“It is sensible to pause and wait for those outcomes before making decisions which might become unaffordable in future,” he said.

Earlier this year the authority held back from cutting numbers of firefighters, but with the option to do so if finances dictated it was necessary.Mr Booth said in all but the worst-case scenario calculated by the service, that wouldn’t be necessary.

Deputy Chief Fire Officer Alex Johnson Johnson said the aim was to ride five firefighers at present, telling members: "We are doing things to increase that."That involved getting more of the workforce doing their jobs "We will be able to ride five. We want it to be more than 30 something per cent," she said.The Fire Brigades Union has confirmed the service has experienced high levels of short term sickness recently.