North Yorkshire's Fire Service is buying “pre-loved fire engines” to replace its decades old appliances, as a means of balancing its books.
The service has replaced part of its 20-year-old fleet with 11-year-old appliances from another fire service.
Chief financial officer - Michael Porter - says they are looking to buy more engines this year which will be a mix of new and second hand vehicles.
North Yorkshire's Fire and Rescue service is buying second hand fire engines as way of balancing it's books.
The service has already replaced part of it's 20 year old fleet with 11 year old appliances from another area.
This year it expects to buy 16 brand new vehicles and a further 15 "pre-loved" appliances.
Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner - Zoe Metcalfe - has praised the approach.
Chief fire officer Jonathan Dyson said the national standard was for all fire appliances to be replaced by their 15th year because after that time it became “incredibly difficult” to replace parts, but North Yorkshire’s relatively low use of appliances meant fire engines faced less wear and tear.
Despite charging residents three per cent more next year for its services and making £540,000 of savings for the second year in succession, a meeting of North Yorkshire and York’s police, fire and crime panel heard the service was “very close to breaking” due to a lack of Government funding.
Panel member and former judge Martin Walker told the meeting he was particularly concerned about the service’s ability to replace its ageing appliances.
Mr Porter said even though the fire service had learnt it would receive about £400,000 more from the Government than it had been expecting last month, it would face significant financial distress for years to come if the nationally agreed pay rise for firefighters was above three per cent.
Police, fire and crime commissioner Zoe Metcalfe nodded as Mr Porter told the panel: “It does continue to be exceptionally challenging and tight. The 2.99 per cent proposed increase is belown what we expect inflation to be for the financial year and is certainly below what we’re seeing in our cost increases.”
The meeting heard a survey had revealed if the fire service had been allowed by the Government to levy a precept increase of £5, more than 50 per cent of the public would have supported such a move.
Members were also told the fire service had very little reserves compared to its counterparts across the country and agreed to write to the Government to highlight concerns over the lack of funding for delivering the service across England’s largest county.
Mrs Metcalfe said she had made “strong representations” to the Home Office about the impact of pay if it went above three per cent and that the Government’s funding formula for the service needed reviewing.
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