Spalding’s full-time fire crews could stop working overnight under a recommended Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue plan, with on-call firefighters taking responsibility for night-time cover at the town’s station.
The proposal was discussed by Lincolnshire County Council’s Community Safety Scrutiny Committee last week. The service says it would allow 20 new recruits to be taken on across the county, while addressing legal concerns and a fall in the number of people volunteering for night shifts.
What the proposal means for Spalding
Under the recommended arrangement, full-time crews would staff Spalding Fire Station during the daytime, seven days a week. On-call crews would provide cover at night.
The same model would apply to on-call teams based at Holbeach, Crowland, Donington and Long Sutton, as well as Spalding. Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue says on-call firefighters are strongest during evenings, nights and weekends, and that the proposed change would place more whole-time resources at stations when demand for incidents is highest.
The plan follows five years of analysis of call data, according to Coun Alex McGonigle, the county council’s executive member overseeing the fire service. He said the proposal had initially also included removing whole-time crews from Spalding Fire Station at weekends, but that this is not part of the recommended plan.
Why the service wants to change night cover
The committee was told that it is no longer legal to ask firefighters to work nights while also working during the day. The service also said fewer people volunteering for night work had contributed to longer response times.
Ryan Stacey, assistant chief fire officer at Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue, said night-time attendance speeds had already started to deteriorate over the past two years. When a whole-time crew member opts out of a night shift, he said, on-call crews are asked to staff the appliance instead.
Mr Stacey said on-call staffing levels had not increased beyond standard levels and were not expected to rise substantially. He said on-call firefighters were already crewing fire engines in the evenings, supplemented by whole-time staff.
“The length of time it takes us to respond has increased and that is down in large part to the number of people opting out of the system.”
On-call firefighters are not based at stations in the same way as whole-time crews. They provide emergency cover as part of the wider county model, and the service says they would remain central to night-time resilience across Lincolnshire’s 38 fire stations.
Consultation response and next steps
There were 609 responses to the consultation on the proposals, including 472 members of the public and 47 staff. The report recorded 61 responses from South Holland.
Spalding was listed as an example of a rural area where respondents believed the changes could have a negative effect. The consultation findings said South Holland respondents were less likely to identify positive impacts and more likely to identify negative impacts than respondents generally.
“South Holland respondents were less likely to identify positive impacts and more likely to identify negative impacts than general respondents.”
Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue says it will continue to monitor appliance availability and carry out targeted recruitment where on-call cover is most important. The service’s stated aim is to maintain effective night-time cover while strengthening the county-wide response model.
The wider service dealt with 2,169 incidents last year using 48 fire engines across 38 stations. Fire chief Mark Baxter attributed part of the increase to a rise in wildfires.