South Wales Fire Authority has set out its budget plans for 2024-25 in a report due to be discussed later today (pdf p45-55).
Although there’s an expectation the Welsh Government will make more money available to local government in the next financial year, it’s unlikely that the projected 3.1% increase will cover cost pressures or inflation faced by councils and the fire authority.
The Fire Authority is particularly reliant on Welsh Government grant funding to support pensions, community safety and emergency planning – but “no commitments have been given”.
The Fire Authority’s budget is partially based on population figures, with the projection for 2024-25 showing a slight decline across the authority area (-0.06%), with Bridgend’s population expected to fall by 0.61%. Only Newport and Cardiff are expecting a population increase.
The proposed Fire Authority budget for 2024-25 is just under £94.6million – a £5.2million increase on 2023-24.
Bridgend Council is currently expected to contribute £8.97million (+£446,000) – an increase of 5.2% – though this is below the fire authority average (+5.8%).
This figure could have been higher, but the Fire Authority has found net savings of £1.8million. This is mainly due to funding certain costs from reserves.
Number of death and injuries falls; false alarms and car accidents rise
The same report (pdf p108-120) provided figures on South Wales Fire Service’s half-yearly performance (April-September 2023).
Across the South Wales Fire Authority area:
- The number of people killed or injured in fires fell from 32 in the first half of 2022-23 to 22 in 2023-24.
- The number of recorded fires fell by 13.8%, with the biggest declines in deliberate rubbish fires (-23.4%) and deliberate grass fires (-25.5%).
- The total number of false alarms increased above the Fire Authority’s target – though the majority of false alarms are “good intent calls” or are due to automated fire alarm systems.
- The number of calls to assist other services (known as special service calls) increased by 8%, with sharp increases in calls to assist the ambulance service (+45.7%), bariatric (obese) patients (+51.5%) and responding suicides or attempted suicides (+36.4%).
- Road traffic collisions increased by 14.5% – though this is still below pre-pandemic levels. 20% of road accidents involved rescuing someone who was trapped.
Bridgend bucked some of these trends (pdf p111). Deliberate grass fires increased by 26%, while all deliberate fires increased by 5% compared to last year. Despite this, there was a 12% fall in false alarms and an 8% fall in road traffic collisions.
