Meeting Details

The Clerk and Monitoring Officer, Shirley Jarlett, in the Chair

It having been proposed by Councillor A Holland, seconded by Councillors F Evans and A Wood, it was


Resolved:

That Councillor A Hedley be elected Chairman of Essex Fire Authority for the forthcoming year.

It having been proposed by Councillor A Hedley and seconded by Councillors F Evans and A Wood, it was

Resolved:

That Councillor A Holland be appointed Vice-Chairman of Essex Fire Authority for the forthcoming year.

Councillor A Hedley in the Chair

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors A Erskine, A Sheldon, F Evans, J Ware-Lane and B Aspinell.

Members made the following declarations of interest in relation to item 12 of the agenda on the Local Business case for Joint Governance of Police and Fire and Rescue:

Councillor	Type of Interest	Nature of Interest
Kerry Smith	Code	Basildon Council representative and Vice Chairman of LGA Fire Service Management Committee
Jo Beavis	Code	LGA Safer and Stronger Communities Board
June Lumley	Code	Deputy to District Council Cabinet Member and member of Essex Police and Crime Panel
Wendy Schmitt	Code	Deputy Chairman of Essex Police and Crime Panel
Ann Holland	Code	Member of Essex Police and Crime Panel

The Minutes of the Essex Fire Authority meeting held on 12 April 2017 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Minutes of the special meeting of the Essex Fire Authority held on 25 April 2017 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman welcomed new Members of the Authority to their first meeting.

The Chairman agreed to consideration of this item of business on the grounds that there was a need to update the Authority on the latest position.

The Acting Chief Fire Officer addressed Members regarding the fire at Grenfell Tower in London the previous evening. He advised that current advice given to residents in high rise flats in the event of a fire would be reviewed in light of this incident. However he wished to reassure Members regarding safety at high rise buildings in Essex.

The Acting Chief Fire Officer advised that the control room teams in Essex had dealt with six calls relating to this incident. The control rooms both in London and those that dealt with calls in Essex had done a superb job in the difficult circumstances of this incident. The Acting Chief Fire Officer commented that his thoughts were with the families affected and colleagues in London in these difficult circumstances and that this was a reminder of the dangerous role of fire-fighting.

The Chairman also expressed that his thoughts and prayers were with those affected.

The Chairman agreed to consideration of this item of business on the grounds that there was a need to update Members as to the latest position.

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) provided Members with an update on the progress with the proposal for Joint Governance for Police and Fire and Rescue in Essex. He gave a brief overview of the three options for which the benefits had been analysed and following the public consultation on these three options for the future governance of the Essex Fire and Rescue Service, the preferred option of Joint Governance had been submitted to Government in a Local Business Case. It was expected that a response from the Home Office would be received shortly and this would mean that the business case was on track for a change of governance on 1 October 2017.

The following points were made in response to questions from Members:

• Due to the squeeze on public services, the objective of joint governance was strategic alignment to release resources for the frontline across both services.
• There was a recognition that in the current circumstances and with the increased threat level that the Police had done an excellent job. Concerns had been raised regarding resources and the PCC explained that he had increased the precept in order to fund new Police Officers and staff in Essex and also invest in technology. The PCC was also engaging in negotiations with the Home Office and neighbouring forces with regard to increasing resources. Whilst there had been an effective and well implemented response to the increased threat level, it was acknowledged that this level of policing could not be maintained long term with the current resources.
• There were no plans for further collaboration of Fire Services in Essex and Kent other than the projects already in place.
• The PCC agreed to take up the issue of enforcement regarding parking, in areas where a fire appliance would struggle to get through.

The Chairman thanked the PCC for his update.

 

Resolved:

That, having reached the view that, in each case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption (and discussing the matter in private) outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information, the public (including the press) be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that they involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as specified in paragraph 4 of part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. Information relating to any consultations or negotiations, or contemplated consultations or negotiations, in connection with any labour relations matters arising between the authority or a Minister of the Crown and employees of, or office-holders under the authority.

(press and public excluded)

The Chairman agreed to consideration of this item of business on the grounds that the Authority needed to be updated on developments which had taken place since the despatch of the agenda for the meeting.

The Authority noted the correspondence and proposed approach on matters relating to firefighter pay.

The Authority considered a report (EFA/067/17) by the Clerk and Monitoring Officer which detailed the membership of the Authority, indicating where nominations were required to fill vacant positions on committees and external bodies. In addition, the report advised of future meeting dates for the Authority and its committees, and provided details of attendance at EFA committees for the business year 2016/17.

Resolved

1. That Group Spokespersons be appointed as follows:

Labour: Councillor C Kent
Liberal Democrat: Councillor B Aspinell
Non-aligned: Councillor D Blackwell

2. That Members be appointed to committees as follows:

Policy and Strategy Committee
10 Members: 7 Conservative, 1 Labour, 1 Liberal Democrat, 1 Non-aligned

Councillor A Hedley (Chairman)	Councillor A Erskine
Councillor A Holland (Vice-Chairman)	Councillor C Kent
Councillor B Aspinell	Councillor M McEwen
Councillor D Blackwell	Councillor A Sheldon
Councillor J Chandler	Councillor A Wood

Audit, Governance and Review Committee
15 Members: 11 Conservative, 2 Labour, 1 Liberal Democrat, 1 Non-aligned

Councillor A Turrell (Chairman)	Councillor J Lumley
Councillor A Watkins (Vice-Chairman)	Councillor B Massey
Councillor J Beavis	Councillor J Moran
Councillor F Evans	Councillor R Pratt
Councillor M Garnett	Councillor W Schmitt
Councillor M Hardware	Councillor K Smith
Councillor I Henderson	Councillor J Ware-Lane
Councillor P Honeywood

 

Joint Standards Committee with Essex County Council

Essex County Council	Councillor J Moran
Southend Borough Council	Councillor F Evans
Thurrock Council	Councillor A Watkins

Principal Officers Human Resources Committee
A minimum of 3 members drawn from a pool of 10, to include the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Authority and the Group Leaders – 7 Conservative, 1 Labour, 1 Liberal Democrat, 1 Non-aligned

Councillor B Aspinell	Councillor A Holland (Chairman)
Councillor D Blackwell	Councillor C Kent
Councillor J Chandler	Councillor J Lumley
Councillor M Garnett	Councillor M McEwen
Councillor A Hedley	Councillor A Wood

EFA (Trading) Ltd

Directors
Type A: EFA Members	Type B: EFA Officers
Councillor A Holland (Chairman)	Acting Chief Fire Officer Adam Eckley
Councillor I Henderson	Director of Transformation Mark Stagg
Councillor B Massey
Councillor J Moran
Councillor A Turrell

3. That Member Champions be appointed as follows

Safer Communities and Youth	Councillor J Chandler
Equal Opportunities	Councillor C Kent
Health and Safety	Councillor W Schmitt
Risk Management	Councillor A Holland
IT and Data Management	Councillor A Wood
On-call Firefighter	Councillor A Erskine
Environmental	Councillor M McEwen
Control	Councillor A Hedley
Employee Engagement	Councillor J Beavis

 

4. That Councillors A Hedley and A Holland, as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Authority respectively, be appointed as the Authority’s nominees to the LGA Fire Commission.

5. That future scheduled meetings of the Authority and its Committees be held as set out below:

Essex Fire Authority
(Wednesday at 10.00am unless otherwise stated)
28 June 2017
6 September 2017
6 December 2017*
14 February 2018*
11 April 2018*

* provisional, subject to date of implementation of new joint governance arrangements for Police and Fire and Rescue

Policy & Strategy Committee
(Wednesday at 10.00am unless otherwise stated)

21 June 2017	10 January 2018*
26 July 2017**	14 March 2018*
11 October 2017**

* provisional, subject to date of implementation of new joint governance arrangements for Police and Fire and Rescue
** dates to be rescheduled due to clashes with meetings of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee at Essex County Council

Audit, Governance and Review Committee
(Wednesday at 10.00am unless otherwise stated)

12 July 2017	17 January 2018*
4 October 2017*	18 April 2018*

 
* provisional, subject to date of implementation of new joint governance arrangements for Police and Fire and Rescue

EFA (Trading) Ltd
(On the rise of the Essex Fire Authority meetings)

28 June 2017	6 December 2017*
6 September 2017	14 February 2018*

* provisional, subject to date of implementation of new joint governance arrangements for Police and Fire and Rescue


6. That member attendance at EFA Committee meetings from 1 June 2016 – 31 May 2017, as set out in Appendix 1 to report EFA/067/17, be noted

7. That the EFA Constitution be amended to reflect any changes arising from the decisions set out in resolutions 1 – 6 above.

The Authority received the report (EFA/068/17) by the Committee Secretary regarding which items should be included in the report to be prepared for circulation to the Constituent Authorities.

Resolved:

That the following items comprise the report to the Constituent Authorities:

1. Election of Chairman
2. Appointment of Vice-Chairman
3. Membership of the Fire Authority and dates of Future Meetings

Members noted that the next meeting of the Authority would take place on Wednesday 28 June 2017 at 10.00am.