During the Fire Authority meeting on 15th January 2009, the Fire Authority approved the three-year Integrated Risk Management Plan following widespread public consultation. One of the eleven recommendations is to review emergency response arrangements, critically consider the types of incidents currently attended and consider other related issues.

The first part of the review, which looks at operational fire cover and resilience in non-urban areas, is due to report in October 2009. The rest of the review is due to report in October 2010. Any recommendations that are made will be implemented by April 2012. Until that time the Service will continue to respond to incidents in exactly the same way as it currently does. One area of this review is to consider whether there are some incidents East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service should attend at normal road speed, thereby improving public and personal safety by not travelling on blue lights. The Service already attends some incidents at normal road speeds, the most recent example was a seagull trapped in some netting, which doesn't warrant a fire appliance responding under blue lights.

All the reviews being undertaken over this period will include further consultations, for example with members of the public, interested parties stakeholders and partners as well as representative bodies.

Other areas subject to the review include reviewing and reprioritising, where necessary, Fire Safety audits and inspections arrangements. The review also looks at fire cover and resilience in non-urban areas, covering community needs and operational response requirements and giving consideration as to whether there are any alternative arrangements or methods of service delivery that can better meet the prioritised, changed and emerging needs of our local communities. A further example of the review includes assessing the long-term needs of operational service delivery in order to ensure that the organisation can sustain improvements in operational competence.

The Fire Authority welcomes any comments or suggestions. The three-year Integrated Risk Management Plan is available on the Service website along with East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service contact details. www.esfrs.org