Lack of manned Northamptonshire fire engines caused by poor staffing

The lack of available fire engines had a clear knock-on effect on response capability, the inspector said

A "financial straightjacket" meant a fire service did not have enough manned engines, an inspection said.

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service was rated "inadequate" for its fire and emergency response.

The overall rating from HM Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services was "requires improvement" when Northamptonshire County Council governed the service.

But the inspector noted an improvement since the police and crime commissioner (PCC) took charge at the start of 2019.

The county council, which had financial issues and was labelled "the worst run in the country", had a spending ban in place at the time of the inspection in November 2018.

Inspector of fire and rescue services, Zoe Billingham, said Northamptonshire needed "at least 14 fire engines available at any one time".

"However, in the short time period we sampled there were far fewer available engines than this," she said in her report.

'More fire engines'

She also said: "At the time of our inspection, the service did not have any financial reserves in place."

But Ms Billingham revisited this service this month and said it was "starting to make improvements".

She said she had been "encouraged" by changes that meant more staff and fire engines were now available.

The inspection said the service had well-developed prevention and protection strategies, but too few staff to provide them

Northamptonshire PCC Stephen Mold said he had allowed the chief fire officer Darren Dovey "to control his own resources, strengthen his top team and use data to better understand demand and risk".

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Mr Dovey said there were now an average of five more fire engines available over 24 hours, and only less than 14 for "very short periods of time".

He said the main issue had been with staffing the engines and the service had introduced schemes to make more firefighters available, with more money allowed for overtime.

He said that last month, in the space of a week, the service had tackled two "large-scale, complex fires" in Kettering and Sywell.

He also said the service was in "a positive position to plan for our financial future".

Inspector Zoe Billingham said the workforce was committed, proud and wanted to do its best