Scottish Fire and Rescue launches public consultation

Members of the public have until 30 November to let SFRS know what they think of the plan, which sets out fire service priorities and objectives within the Highland area. The operational changes suggested include:

• Promoting retained and community response firefighter recruitment at all stations across the Highland area;
• The provision of structured, risk based and planned training to support the acquisition and the maintenance of skills for operational personnel, in line with the SFRS training for operational competence policy; 
• The collection, collation and presentation of operational risk information for high risk and special risk locations throughout Highland; 
• Working with multi agency partners and the Highlands and Islands Local Resilience Partnership to undertake preplanning, to develop multi agency response plans and to adopt an integrated emergency management approach; and 
• Embracing the SFRS transformation agenda and implementing operational response solutions

All responses made during the consultation will be considered and the final draft local plans – including any changes made following submissions by members of the public – will then be passed to Highland Council for final approval.

SFRS local senior officer for Highland, John MacDonald, is encouraging communities to get involved and help shape future priorities for the Service in the area. He said: "While we have knowledge from our day to day activities about what is most needed by people who live in the Highlands, it is an important part of our community engagement strategy to enable those representing the public to offer views.

"We engaged with our stakeholders to seek their views on how well we had been performing against our existing priorities, and have taken account of that in our draft plan which is now out for consultation. We welcome comments from our partners and members of our communities on our proposed priorities for Highland and we recognise that effective partnership working is key to delivering success."

To see the SFRS Local Fire and Rescue Plan for Highland and to take part in the public consultation visit, https://firescotland.citizenspace.com/planning-and-performance/copy-of-local-plan-consultation/