Latest Community Safety Proposals- CSVs

North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service is currently undertaking a public consultation exercise on their latest Community Safety Proposals. The proposals are aimed at improving service delivery to Communities throughout North Yorkshire and the City of York.

One of the proposals includes an addition to the already effective fire cover throughout the County. The Fire and Rescue Service has designed eight Community Safety Vehicles, which are to be used in rural or hard to reach areas. Their main function is to provide advice, education and support to a variety of Community Safety initiatives, including the fitting of smoke alarms and carrying out Home Fire Safety Checks. Home Fire Safety Checks are a free service in which Firefighters visit households to look for potential hazards and offer advice.

It is proposed that these Community Safety Vehicles will be equipped with state of the art equipment to allow Firefighters to respond in a ‘first strike' capability to incidents in remote rural areas. This will be in addition to a full Fire Appliance which will be mobilised at the same time. The aim of this initiative is to enhance the level of service to rural communities, where the attendance of a full scale Fire Appliance would take some time to reach an incident.

Chief Fire Officer Nigel Hutchinson says "Over the past year, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has helped to achieve a reduction of fires in the home, there are fewer people dying in fires, less fires overall and a reduction in road accident injuries. These figures are encouraging, but we want to reduce the figures further." He continues "The introduction of Community Safety Vehicles responding to incidents is a significant enhancement to the service delivery in rural areas. I would like to assure the public that there is no reduction in the level of fire cover for these areas, and a full scale Fire Appliance will be mobilised to incidents as normal."

The Fire Stations involved have been consulted with, to ensure that Firefighters have contributed to the equipment supplied with the vehicles. It is anticipated that the vehicles will be equipped with a variety of equipment, which will provide an initial first strike capability, prior to the arrival of a full scale Fire Appliance.

The Community Safety Vehicles are being located at the following Stations;

• Northallerton
• Malton
• Tadcaster
• Selby
• Ripon
• Richmond
• Whitby
• Skipton

Chief Fire Officer Nigel Hutchinson continues "These vehicles will make a difference to the people in our Communities. Firefighters will be fully trained, and equipped to operate in a limited capability. Time is of the essence when dealing with incidents and the timely arrival of trained professionals will have an impact on the reduction of casualties in the North Yorkshire area."

Members of the public and business community are invited to have their say on the proposals. More detailed information on the community safety proposals can be found in the full consultation document. Anybody wishing to receive a copy of the Integrated Risk Management Plan should visit http://www.northyorksfire.gov.uk/  or contact the Corporate Information Unit on 01609 788501.