Rasing money for the FireFighters Challenge and promoting the awareness of autism.

A couple of months back, I started to follow on twitter a young lad of 10 who has Autism.  He had created a challenge to visit every fire station in the UK (thats about 2300), to raise money for the FireFighters Charity and to promote the awareness of Autism.  He lives in Hampshire and has set himself a very large challenge (costly to his parents who have been a great support)
Andrew Dane, is a young 10 year old , who has autism.  Up until last year could not read or write and wouldnt soeak to many people.   At Christmas 2014, he wanted to visit his local fire station in Cosham. His dad took him and couldnt get him away from visiting fire stations.
I'd spoken to CDDFRS Acting CFO and asked if Durham could assist.   A couple of phonecalls with the organising of dates for the visit and then he was set to come up North.
Following Andrew on Twitter has seen an overwhelming response from Hampshire Fire and Rescue who have certainly pushed the challenge.   Completing Hants apparently was a challenge in it self but that included revisiting stations as the CFO had said that standing outside wasnt included in the challenge.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue presented Andrew with a certificate upon on completing 51 stations. Two weeks before Andrew was to visit Durham, Hampshire released a press release which was picked up by ITV News and from then the tweets have been rolling in.   
Some of the lads up at Durham Fire Station wanted to meet up with Andrew on his visit but lucky enough the last day was to be with Durham Fire Station.

Andrew arrived on the Sunday afternoon fresh from completing Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service on the Saturday. Including visiting Luton Airport!!!

Through the power of Twitter, his mum had arranged to visit some Tyne and Wear Fire Stations aswell. Although this was an ad-hoc visit to Tyne and Wear, the reception was inmense.   On arrival at Gateshead Fire Station, we had timed it to be the day of the Tyne-Wear Derby,   but that hadnt put SM Ian Warne to come in specially to meet Andrew.

Andrews knowledge of Fire appliances is emmense.  To see peoples jaws drop when he went through every locker on each appliance was just brilliant.
The picture below shows Andrew on the ALP but even amazing watching him assist in the setting up of an aerial was truly an eye opener.

 

Andrew with Gateshead Blue Watch and SM Ian Warne 

His mum was explaining that he has read the Firemans Manual back to front, and his disability is improving his confidence in speaking to people.   Since hes started this challenge he speaks more to firefighters then he would to children of his own age group.
The stations that we had visited in Tyne and Wear were overwhelmed by his challenge.   Andrew had seen my Flickr account and wanted to visit Hebburn to see there Special Rescue Tender. 

Washington and Birtley were also visited and astonded by his challenge and his knowledge. 

Monday was the next day and his next challenege was to County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service.  

With CDDFRS chauffering around Andrew and his mum (which was the first visit where there was no driving involved), I joined them for the three days.  Visiting Darlington first, it was then across to Newton Aycliffe, up to Spennymoor then across to Fire Service HQs for lunch with the Acting CFO.
Now heads did turn when we arrived at Hqs especially when we were just signing in. But Andrew had to meet the Chief first before he could have lunch.     After lunch it was on with the visit and a revisit to Newton Aycliffe for Andrew to have a look at the Incident Command Unit that is based there.   We went across to Peterlee and then to Seaham where we were met with Assitant District Manager.   Again jaws dropped on Andrews knowledge of fire service equipment.
Across the three days which I wont bore those that are in the Fire and Rescue Service too much, it was amazing and an honour to assist on this visit and to see peoples faces drop.    
It truly is one thing to say that a young lad that has a disability gets a better appreciation than anyone else who has an interest in the fire service.  
It was sad to see him go home to Hampshire on the Wednesday afternoon and was certainly strange not getting up on Thrusday morning. 

Its great to see Fire and Rescue Services coming on board but disappointed that there is some brigades that dont seem interested.

 

Fire, Police and Ambulance all under one

The latest Government spin to come out of Westminster is to merge the Fire,Police and Ambulance Service.  In 2012, local Police Authority's were abolished and police forces were under the Police and Crime Commissioner to which was a political stance.

The role below sets out the Home Office guidelines on what a PCC is.

41 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) were elected across England and Wales on the 15th November 2012. When PCCs took office on the 22nd November 2012 they became responsible for a combined police force area budget of £8 billion.
The role of the PCCs is to be the voice of the people and hold the police to account. They are responsible for the totality of policing.
PCCs aim to cut crime and deliver an effective and efficient police service within their force area.
PCCs have been elected by the public to hold Chief Constables and the force to account, effectively making the police answerable to the communities they serve.
PCCs ensure community needs are met as effectively as possible, and are improving local relationships through building confidence and restoring trust. They work in partnership across a range of agencies at local and national level to ensure there is a unified approach to preventing and reducing crime.
Under the terms of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, PCCs must:

• secure an efficient and effective police for their area;
• appoint the Chief Constable, hold them to account for running the force, and if necessary dismiss them;
• set the police and crime objectives for their area through a police and crime plan;
• set the force budget and determine the precept;
• contribute to the national and international policing capabilities set out by the Home Secretary; and
• bring together community safety and criminal justice partners, to
• make sure local priorities are joined up.

In all since these PCCs have been appointed, there has been somewhat of either scandals or investigations in to major failings of pastworkings of these PCCs. 

In South Yorkshire, the PCC was publicly forced to resign due to a scandal of the Rotherham Sex Abuse probe to which the then PCC Shaun Wright was made to resign as he was the previous leader of Rotherham Council. 

Other PCCs have been under investigation for expenses to which they were found of no wrong doing at all. 

PCCs all hold a five year term and another two years are left. 

 In all this, it would be wrong to place all services under one PCC. There would be no local voice in the running of these services. 

Its all run politically.

Abolishing Fire Authorities would be the wrong decision. But with the current economic climate the Government are committed to damage our FRS, Police and NHS. 

The Government should look at a point of Commissioners responsible for each Fire Service being independent and not of any Political Party. 

Regionalisation of FRS again is back on the cards. Look at the Labours plan to remove all 46 Fire and Rescue Services control rooms. In excess of over drawn on tax payers money to which were never fit for purpose. Out of the 9 that was build, three are in use. Belmont (Durham) is now the HQs and Control Room for County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service,  Warrington which serves the North West is now home to the North West Control Room (GMFRS, Cumbria, Lancs and Cheshire) and the one in the south is home to the HM Coastguard. 

A project that was never going to work and be of a private company making most Fire and Rescue Control Room staff under different terms and conditions.  The local knowledge of the Control Staff was to be lost if working in a different area. 

So in summary the idea of all three Emergency Services under one PCC is wrong and would not work. 

Social Media Incident pages.

Social Media has become the normal life of day to day of reporting of road closures, incidents etc.  Theres quite a few that are tailored for the North East. The main one which covers the county to the west of me, is fast becoming a national incident site instead of reporting local incidents. 
In recent weeks it has reported breaking news of national news instead of being a local area wide page.   Copying national breaking news, sport is irrelevant to the area that it covers. Recent postings of a takeaways, pubs, restaurants that have either been fined or caused a health issue is not an incident. 
These pages are more and more becoming a site in my opinion of racial hatred. I have watched this particular site on more then one occasion of putting incidents out, become a site for vigilantes enticing racial comments towards Ethnic Minorities that live in this country.  The creator of this page, whinged to the local press and had a cheek to say on the local TV channel that he was a victim of cyber bullying. What he neglected to also say that he was probably the reason that he cant control his site in a respectable manor.  This lad thinks he owns the area and think he can run rings around the local police.
More to say that he the fire service has had several complaints by there fire officers regarding his attitude at scenes.  

 

A hobby that is now being stopped by bueracy

As many people know, I have a keen interest in the day by day operations of the UK Fire and Rescue Service. I spend alot of my free time travelling the UK to visit fire stations with a group of other like minded people. Many of these visit are either officially organised visits through 'The Fire Brigade Society' or private visits when the visiting season has stopped. 
In this day and age, visiting fire stations to photograph appliances is getting too political in regards to photographing appliances with their registration numbers on.  This also the case with requesting from Fire and Rescue Services through Freedom of Information requests for fleetlists.   Fire and Rescue Services are point blankly refusing the requests by playing the 'in the interests of National Security' This is, in my opinion an absolute drawback in the history of fire appliances of the UK.  FRS must understand that if they continue in playing the 'National Security' card, then the peoples perception of the fire service is that they are not interested.
For instances on a arranged visit last year to a local North East Fire service (who will remain anonymous), we had a Station Manager (SM) who came around with us to pull the fire appliances out. I'd made a fleetlist for some of the members so they knew what was across the stations that we were visiting.  The SM was keen to see the list as he wasn't sure himself on what was where.  He even picked out his car that was on the list.
On every station that we went to I told him the history of that appliance by where it was based at before it had come to being there.
At our last station which was, he was speaking to the duty crew and had said to them in a conversation 'that lad over there amazes me, he knows where every single appliance was based at before'
Its a pity  that more and more Station Managers, Middle Managers, Senior Managers are not helpful in requests in the history of what was 'the British Fire Service'
Compared to another visit that was in the Yorkshire area we were told that we could not publish any photos. Any one found publishing them would be prosecuted. 

I'm hearing more and more about Fire Services stopping people visiting to photograph fire appliances. On a recent visit by a member he had rules laid down to him even before he got to the station to photograph and the registrations were blanked over.
It amazes me that this same FRS, holds its annual gala day at their Headquarters and the registrations are on show, but if you were to visit privately then you get told to not publish any photos, all registrations will be covered.  
Ridiculous it may sound but there are some over the top, pen pushing, tick in the box Station Managers who are going down this route.

What would stop anyone sitting outside a fire station to catch the appliance with the registration uncovered?     Nothing

FRS need to engage with the community more.  What the public don't know is that Community Fire Stations are now not Community Fire Stations as to be start charging for using the meeting rooms.


Will this stop the fire service going down the privatisation route?

Todays tragic death in Woolwich, London,.

Todays tragic news from Woolwich, brings home the way this country is run.  We've had the bombings in Manchester in the 90s, the bombing of a Brighton Hotel at the Conservative Conference, and the London bombings of 07/07/2005. 
Every minute we are reminded of the acts of Terrorism across the world but this country always grinds to a halt.  
The countrys laws need to be changed in regards to the way suspected Terrorists are held, questioned and removed out of the world.  As a country we are a laughing stock to the rest of letting the flood gates open. 

We need to come out of the EU as we shouldnt do what Brussels tells us to do.  

The defict of Great Britain is down to this Government of send money to places that will no longer be able to pay back.