Shropshire's Fire and Rescue Service is provided by 512 full-time and retained firefighters based at 23 fire stations around the county. They currently deploy 46 operational vehicles and a number of specialist appliances.
Organisation and management
Fire Authority
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service is governed by elected Council representatives from Shropshire's two unitary councils, Shropshire Council and Telford and Wrekin Council. Together these representatives make up the Shropshire and Wrekin Fire Authority, chaired by an elected councillor.
Day-to-day operational control of the service is vested in a chief fire officer, Rod Hammerton.[1]
Executive control
Within the organisation the chief fire officer has full responsibility for the service and also manages finance and resources.
The remainder of executive duties fall to the senior management team, consisting of and assistant chief fire officer with responsibility for service delivery and an assistant chief fire officer with responsibility for corporate services.[2]
Performance
An aerial appliance of the Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service has achieved consistently high marks in external audits carried out by the Audit Commission.[3][4]
Every fire and rescue service in England and Wales is periodically subjected to a statutory inspection by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS). The inspections investigate how well the service performs in each of three areas. On a scale of outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate, Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service was rated as follows:
