That Investment Opportunity 6/7/19 be deferred to enable the Director of Asset Management, Investment and Housing, TDA, to obtain further financial information in respect of the tenant and future use of the site.

That the Leader of the Council responds to the Fire and Rescue Service consultation before the closing date of 22 September 2019 on the basis that the 6 options as proposed by the Devon and Somerset Fire Authority in their consultation document Safer Together should be rejected.  That members of the Fire Authority representing Torbay be recommended, having considered all representations and available information, to vote against these options and support any option to maintain the status quo of fire cover in the bay and open discussions with the Fire Service to explore improved resilience in a more clear and concise way.

This Council having considered the current consultation being run by Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service feels that:-

The Options proposed do not provide sufficient detail for the improvements claimed, particularly information on how the on-call system would be improved, how extra prevention and protection will be achieved, or how much would actually be re-invested into the service.

It fails to recognise the excellent work Firefighters already do to prevent injuries, building damage and environmental damage, and to respond to all types of incidents.

This Council feels that the data given in the consultation is flawed and has an unachievable expectation, in that there is an assumption made that after the cuts, all assets will be available at all times, giving the false impression that the risk of fire deaths will reduce if the proposals are agreed, whereas statistically it is likely that risk would increase.

The revised attendance times make no reference to properties that may be disadvantaged by the proposed changes.

It should also be noted that if the proposals were to be adopted, around one third of the residents of Devon and Somerset, over 600000 people, will see a slower response from the Fire and Rescue service at certain times of the day.

The Council fully supports the work the Fire and Rescue Service undertake in their prevention work within Torbay and urges the Fire and Rescue Service to undertake more enforcement action with businesses who are non-compliant with the appropriate fire regulations and to work with Community Services to achieve this.

The Council is also concerned as to the appropriate lack of transparency in the process where the document refers to the information/data collected by this consultation being kept confidential and only the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service staff responsible for the analysis of data and those responsible for preparing the consultation findings report receiving full details and not the public or the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority Members.

As such this Council calls upon Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service Authority members to reject in full the options proposed.