Would you pay an extra £5 for your fire service?
Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service have announced radical plans for a referendum on council tax to help fund a hole in the budget.
As part of a briefing about budget cuts, Leicestershire's Chief Fire Officer, Dave Webb announced a range of proposals to help the service.
With immediate effect consultations are underway about removing catering at all sites to save money. This would result in ten compulsory redundancies. Discussions are also underway with Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service about a control room merger.
At a meeting of Leicestershire's Fire Authority last night, members also gave permission to senior managers to explore other cost saving ideas from 2015 onwards. They include:
reducing support staff
reducing number of firefighters per engine to 4 instead of 5.
removing second pump at Loughborough.
removing a pump in the city.
removing the second pump at Oakham.
disbanding the resilience team.
reducing flexible duty
reducing overtime rates
Leicestershire Fire Authority could be the first to spend £1million on a referendum on council tax. The service would first consult on the idea to see if it is worth spending the money on the vote. If the vote goes against an increase, that could cost the authority a further £1million in costs.
The service say increasing council tax by £5 per year would raise £1million.