New North Yorkshire fire boss faces 'very difficult' task

North Yorkshire's new police, fire and crime commissioner (PFCC) will face a challenge managing the fire and rescue service, a meeting has heard.

The county's fire service was chronically underfunded, with crumbling buildings and out-of-date vehicles, the police, fire and crime panel was told.

Chief financial officer Michael Porter said it was "not a rosy picture".

An election for the PFCC position will take place on 25 November, following the resignation of Philip Allott.

The fire and rescue service would be drawing on £638,000 of reserves to balance the books up until April, but 2022 looked like it was going to be "really challenging", Mr Porter told the police, fire and crime panel meeting.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, he said a £390,000 deficit had initially been forecast for 2022-23 from reserves to balance the 2022-23 budget.

However, that was likely to deepen significantly due to pay awards, soaring utility bills and increases in National Insurance contributions, he added.

Mr Porter said more savings would have to be made unless restrictions on fire services increasing their council tax demands were eased by the government.

"Initial views on the settlement for next year are that it is probably not as generous as it has been for the police - and the police have more scope to increase precept," he said.

Some members of the panel questioned why £365,000 had been spent on "minor works" to fire service buildings, but were told they were built up to 70 years ago and times had now changed.

Many buildings were meant to be medium-term premises and had not been designed with facilities to suit female firefighters, they were told.

Mr Porter added: "There are a significant number of properties within the estate that are in dire need of replacement, as opposed to maintenance. The longer we leave it, or are unable to replace the buildings, the more we will have to spend patching them up."

City of York Council leader Keith Aspden said: "Unless something happens nationally, things are going to get very difficult, particularly for services like this with relatively small budgets and rural areas."

After the meeting, the panel's chair, Councillor Carl Les, said: "I think the situation is bleak. The fundamental problem is the overall funding for the fire and rescue service."

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