As many as 17 fire safety roles in Lancashire could be at risk as plans to cut services go out to public consultation. 

If passed, roles within the services’ protection and prevention divisions will be removed and consolidated into new positions.

The prevention team would be cut from 18 home fire risk assessors to four community safety advisors, a wellbeing and early help manager.

And in the protection team, six fire safety managers, a team leader and seven fire safety enforcement officers would become four business safety advisors and a senior manager.

The changes would deliver an overall saving of around £700,000.

The service is under pressure to make cuts totalling £10 million over the next couple of years. Chiefs say that the new measures can be delivered without compulsory redundancies due to recruitment freezes and retirements.

Assistant chief fire officer David Russel said in a report: “The options are framed around making better use of existing capacity by reconfiguring both services in a manner which better reflects the expected operating environment in the future.”

Kevin Deacon, county chairman at the Fire Brigades Union, warned that the proposals were part of an ongoing culture of austerity from the government.

Mr Deacon added: “If there are performance issues within protection and prevention then it could have an impact on us, as operation firefighters, and the safety of the general public.”

A final decision is due in December.

Original source

Lancashire Telegraph