Cambridgeshire Fire Service say council tax raise is needed to avoid redundancies

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service have called for a £4.95 per year council tax increase to avoid station closures and redundancies.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority say the 6.6 per cent increase – which for a band D property equals an extra £4.95 per year – is needed due to the increasing cost of fuel, pay and other outgoings.

If the increase is given the go ahead, the Fire and Rescue section of council tax would equate to £79.92 per year for a band D property.

"Unless we can ask for more money from council tax payments, we are going to have to make redundancies”

Chief Fire Officer Chris Strickland said: “We have been making efficiencies within our Service for the last decade which have exceeded £7m in real terms, and this has been so that we could keep council tax increases to a minimum and continue to improve our service. We have done this protecting the frontline, managing to have the same number of firefighters riding a fire engine as well as introducing two additional fire engines available in the daytime. But this year has shown just how close to the wire we have now become, with the hot, dry summer creating a demand that pushed us to the limits.

“We’ve carried out a significant project this year looking at how we can find the £1.1m. We’ve managed to strip out some more efficiencies but that is only a small part of what is needed and even that inhibits our ability to continue to improve our service. The sad reality is, that even with housing growth in the county and our government funding increasing in line with inflation, unless we can ask for more money from council tax payments, we are going to have to make redundancies and potentially close up to three of our on-call fire stations to balance the budget.”

What the fire service provides

The Cambridgeshire service currently employs 229 full time firefighters, and 259 on call firefighters, along with 43 control operators taking 999 calls and 212 professional support staff, while running 28 fire stations across the county – including in Dogsthorpe and Stanground.

Councillor Edna Murphy, Chair of the Fire Authority continued: “We know that times are tough for people right now and raising our share of the council tax is not something we do lightly as we appreciate the impact it has on everyone. However, the alternative is being forced to close fire stations and also make people redundant and that isn’t something we want to do either.

“This has been a unique year where inflation has spiralled since the current year’s budget was set last January. Increasing the council tax by 6.6 per cent will allow us to balance the budget next year without being forced to make significant, damaging cuts that could have a detrimental impact on the service we currently provide.”

In December, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Police and Crime Commissioner Darryl Preston said the police section of council tax needed to rise by 5.8 per cent.