Cost
2019/20 will cost £20.3m to run Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service (WFRS). Around £11.6m of this will be spent on providing an emergency response service, £0.8m on our control room (the people who take 999 calls from the public) and £1.6m on training and development to make sure we can do our jobs as safely and effectively as possible.
Around £2.2m of the budget pays for technical and transport services – which covers the maintenance of our fire engines, vehicles and equipment. It also pays for fuel, protective clothing and water costs.
£1.4m each year is spent on activities to prevent incidents and to protect people from fires. This includes working with schools, businesses and community groups, and working on initiatives to reduce arson.
£0.5m is needed to make sure all of the critical systems we rely on are kept up to date and in good working order. For example, the service has specialist systems that allow the control room to issue instructions for firefighters to respond to incidents, and which hold important information about the fire risk at premises and locations.
£2.2m is to provide business support, including HR, communications, projects, planning and the senior management who lead the service.
We continually invest in capital spending to make sure it has the right facilities in the right parts of the county. Over the next two years, the service is planning to invest a further £6.9m in its premises, vehicles and equipment to make sure they are fit for purpose.