The Wyre Forest Emergency Services Hub Station Consultation
This consultation is now closed. Results are now being collated and a report will go to the Fire Authority in February 2016 for consideration.
What is the project?
Back in October 2014, Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (HWFRS) successfully secured £2.38 million of government funding to build an Emergency Services Hub Station within the Wyre Forest area. If approved, this new purpose built hub will also be home to West Mercia Police and West Midlands Ambulance Service, whilst also providing several voluntary services with a new base location.
Why are we doing it?
If approved, a shared hub station will be highly beneficial as it would bring the resources of each service together on one site, allow us to share operational intelligence and ultimately improve the way we respond to incidents. Partnership working also fits in with the government’s ‘blue light agenda’ – which is to encourage fire, police and ambulance services work in closer collaboration to make best use of their resources and achieve better outcomes for the public.
Furthermore, a hub station would make more efficient use of our resources, increase joint training opportunities and could potentially result in significant savings for the Service. It would also mean lower energy consumption as well as reduced maintenance and facilities management costs
You can read more about the project and the benefits in the full consultation document which can be accessed here.
What did the consultation involve?
The consultation was all about whether a hub station would be a good idea in principle; no decisions have been made and no site has yet been selected.
A number of preliminary ‘listening and engagement’ exercise have taken place, across the Wyre Forest area, in order to gauge the opinions of local residents, councillors and HWFRS staff. Part of this involved visiting local mayors and all of the watches at the fire stations. The information was then collated and fed into a report which was put forward to the Fire Authority in June 2015. Click here to view the report and presentation.
On 17 th June 2015, the Authority approved the commencement of a formal public consultation for the project. A 12 week consultation process commenced on 1 September, which involved working closely with staff, local communities and their representatives to make sure that all views were taken into consideration. Part of this involved public meetings in Stourport, Bewdley and Kidderminster, and members of the public were also given the opportunity to complete a questionnaire, prior to the Authority making any decisions at its meeting in February 2016.
To view the consultation presentation that was used for public and stakeholder meetings, please click here. Please note that the statistics that used in the presentation are based on incidents that occurred in the station grounds of the Wyre Forest area, i.e. Bewdley, Stourport and Kidderminster. All statistics refer to the financial year running from 1 April to 31 March.
Click here to read our Equality Impact Assessment Form.
Confidentiality
All completed questionnaires are being processed by ORS, a specialist social research practice appointed to undertake this work. Please also note that no individuals will be identified in the ORS report of findings, but organisations may be identified.
Other written responses (emails, letters and other submissions) will be summarised by ORS and may be quoted in their report and on our website. Once again, no individuals will be identified, but organisations will be identified.