Councillors have called for more funding to be provided by government to Cleveland Fire Authority to help support firefighters and the services the brigade provides.
It comes after it was recently agreed that the amount each household pays to the fire authority in council tax for 2024/25 would increase by three per cent, the maximum allowed in line with national referendum limits.
This is to help meet an approximate £1.5m deficit initially identified by Cleveland Fire Authority for the coming year and to help the organisation provide a balanced budget.
Chris Little, treasurer at the fire authority, said government strategies place a continued reliance on council tax increases to provide fire authorities and councils with funding.
However Cleveland raises the lowest proportion of core spending power from council tax compared to other fire and rescue authorities due to its low council tax base.
Mr Little said: “The system isn’t working, to be quite honest. I think we’ve lobbied many, many times that the system needs to change, and we continue to do so.”
Councillors at the latest Cleveland Fire Authority meeting called on the organisation to continue to push the government for further funding.
Councillor Ben Clayton, Hartlepool Borough Council representative on the authority, said: “I think we do need to keep lobbying, I know it feels like we’ve not been listened to, but you’ve got to keep going and hopefully at some point someone will.
“Given the political landscape, I think it is important to look at the shadow ministers as well as the ministers, perhaps invite them to come and have a look.
“If you stick them in front of our industrial cluster and say what do you suggest we do if that goes off, and we haven’t got enough resources, it might hammer it home a bit more than a piece of paper on their desk.”
Councillor Mary Ovens, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council representative, added they have continued to lobby ministers and MPs “time and time again” over the years.
She said: “Far from levelling up, it’s just keeping people at a disadvantage, and I don’t know what’s going to change it.”
The meeting heard Cleveland Fire Authority has seen a £4.7m reduction in government funding between 2013/14 and 2023/24, a decrease of 25 per cent.
This has resulted in a 33 per cent reduction in the number of wholetime firefighter posts from 494 to 332.
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