Coven Response to WYFS

8/3/2019 Coven Response to WYFS

1/5

Sarah Covell

COVEN 2011 December 9th

2011 1

Community Organisation for Viable Environments & Neighbourhoods

http://ls9forever.blogspot.com/

Response to the proposals by West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue

Contained Within Its

Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) for 2012-13
http://ls9forever.blogspot.com/http://ls9forever.blogspot.com/http://ls9forever.blogspot.com/


2/5

Sarah Covell


2011 2

Dear ACO Hardy

Appended to this pack are the letters and objections to the IRMP 2012 -2013. As stated in an earlier

email to CFO Pilling COVEN believe that your plans and business case for the closure of Gipton &Stanks Fire Stations are seriously flawed and contain many inaccuracies. Although I assured CFO

Pilling that we would not be contacting WYFRS again over this matter unless specifically invited to

we will be presenting our findings in depth to our local elected members and the press in the coming

week prior to the 16th

December.

1. You give a very positive spin on the number of businesses you have to visit in regard to yourcommunity safety and risk reduction initiatives. However with a combined total of 2678

commercial properties to date you have only visited 1028 of those 39% of the total.

2. Why even attempt to close a very high risk low cost station such as Gipton? We feel thatthat this unnecessary and as the site by your own admission is excellent and directly on to

the main A64. Is it because WYFRS do not like 1930s architecture and prefer a more modern

feel ?

3. Is the desire to move a fire station close to the police HQ a method of implementing thefindings of the Fire Future Reviewby the back door, which COVEN believes will lead in part

to the privatisation of various elements of the service you currently provide- COVEN

consider the line adapting the conditions of service of fire fighters as part of local IRMPs as

a hint that you probably do already know this and are making as yet unpublished plans.

4. We wish to bring to your attention that even though the Fire Future Review is an importantdocument and will obviously impact on the service WYFRS deliver in the coming years it is

not mentioned within any of your documents pertaining to these proposed closures. The

proposed introduction of Community Protection Authorities will we believe impact

considerably on the scope of the IRMP too and these are not mentioned either.

5. Your figures presented in the business case are flawed and inaccurate. We consider youhave purposefully misled the community by publishing them. We believe the correct figures

to be below


3/5

Sarah Covell


2011 3

Total Number of Mobilisations from Gipton Fire Station 2010

Actual total incidents were for 2010

2575 as the figures below did not include the times theservice was called elsewhere to incidents, which was 765.

********Why did you seek to mislead the community by only publishing figures from April

September 2010? ****************

Please note we obtained these figures from your own website the WYFRS Performance

Management & Activity Report 2010 2011.

COVEN wish also to note that Leeds is also along with Gipton a Very High Risk Station which is

expected to cover the Gipton and Stanks area when required. We consider this a very high risk initself!

Year Fires Special Service Calls False Alarms Total Incidents

Total 2010 828 135 847 1810

2010 -April/Sept

(business planfigure) 472 81 423 976

Mobilisation to

other areas 765 Total2575

Also for information we enclose the statistics for 2011 January August 2011 which you also

didnt declare. This was obtained by an FOI request. COVEN however does congratulate you on the

speed with which you provided us with the figures.

Year Fires Special Service Calls False Alarms

Total

Incidents

2011 - Jan to

August 538 114 539 1191


4/5

Sarah Covell


2011 4

If you use this data you can demonstrate that the number of special service calls and attendance

at fires is increasing not declining. Sadly we do not have the number of calls to incidents

elsewhere on this occasion.

6. Your use of risk based planning assumption tools are COVEN believe only as good as theinformation you put in at the front end regardless of the algorithms at the back, and that

input information is subject to human subjective decisions. COVEN questions the statement

that the poverty levels of the area are declining, and that poverty indicators are declining.

The figures for our area are increasing not decreasing which is evidenced with the Office for

National Statisticshttp://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html

7. COVEN also queries the population figures you quote. East End Park in particular has a highnumber of unregulated conversions of back to back properties. I enclose a sample of a

COVEN previous project which indentified 2 back to back type 2 properties which had been

converted without relevant planning permission into 3 self contained flats each. We append

Appeal A: APP/N4720/C/08/2087393 and Appeal B: APP/N4720/C/08/2087397 to this

document which is evidence of these conversions and our subsequent success in overturning

them. We can if required provide you with maps using the participatory mapping technique

which visually compare the information on the LCC planning portal and cross reference it to

selective licensing information. These maps also demonstrate that the area of east Leeds is

probably in our estimates at least 15 -20 % over the current population figures you choose

to use. Also I am sure we do not need to tell you of the dangers of unregulated conversionsand increased hazards of fire.

8. COVEN congratulates you on the active promotion of the Young Fire-fighters Scheme whichis currently based at Gipton and was extremely impressed by the verbal report given by a

unknown fire-fighter at the community meeting at Richmond Hill Community Centre on

Thursday 17th

November. We agree wholeheartedly that schemes such as these provide

young people with opportunities to improve their self esteem and build community and

personal capacity, however as you have not recruited one of these people into the WYFRS

service we do feel that young people although supported by you are in a certain light being

set up to fail.

9. Efficiencies there is only one thing we wish to bring to your attention and that is thatreducing the front line services you provide and lowering the number ofcoal face

firefighters is wrong. Had you laid out in your business case and IRMP some indication of

other savings you were to make ie reductions in revenue funding at senior management

level we may have been more sympathetic. We appreciate the need for belt tightening but

to quote David Cameron we are all in this together. WYFRS it appears are not taking this

approach.
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.htmlhttp://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.htmlhttp://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.htmlhttp://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html


5/5

Sarah Covell


2011 5

10.Consultation have you the WYFRS actually proactively instigated any consultation otherthan by paper based exercise? COVEN is aware of only one public meeting within our area,

arranged by Clr Khan, yet we are probably the most affected area by these proposals 1& 7.

Had it not been for the Fire Brigades Union and myself meeting by accident at Leeds Civic

Hall there wouldnt have even been any publicity arranged or distributed for it. We

acknowledge the work of the FBU however wish to reiterate that COVEN have worked alone

on this consulation exercise in order to remain independent and untainted. We did however

gratefully use the wording provided by them to enable is to concentrate our efforts on

quality rather than quantity. Had we started our consultation process on Sept 9th

we would

not have used proforma responses it is simply not our way. COVEN have appended a

stakeholder engagement document which we use to support our activities and are as we

have said before in our email to CFO Pilling happy to provide future support to your

community engagement process. If you choose to use our methodology in future iterations

of your IRMP we would however wish our intellectual property to be acknowledged

accordingly.

Sarah Covell COVEN December 2011.

[email protected]

Coven 2011
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

Documents

Coven Response to WYFS