East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service (ESFRS) is committed to reducing the risk to the public from fires and other emergencies. ESFRS’s Community Risk Management Plan (see here) sets out how risk is managed across East Sussex and Brighton and Hove, and how best it can efficiently resource its Prevention, Protection and Response activities. ESFRS must ensure it provides value for money and it must operate within its budget. In this context, its Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP) forecast has indicated a large budget deficit and therefore there is a need for significant savings to balance its budget for 2025/26.
In February 2024, the East Sussex Fire Authority (ESFA) asked ESFRS officers to develop options for achieving permanent savings to balance the 2025/26 budget; focusing particularly on Mayfield On-Call Fire Station. As a result of the options appraisal, a decision will need to be taken on the future of Mayfield Fire Station: whether it should be closed, and if it is, how resources should be redistributed. This is an opportunity for you to give your views on the options. No decision will be made until December 2024.
Before completing this questionnaire, you may wish to read the supporting information available on the website at www.esfrs.org/mayfield or you can request a paper copy by emailing consult@esfrs.org.
To give your feedback, please complete this questionnaire by 27th September 2024; or alternatively if you wish to receive a paper copy or have any problems in accessing information in an accessible format for your needs, please email consult@esfrs.org. It should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete and we welcome responses from everyone, including members of the public, organisations, and ESFRS employees.
The questionnaire is being administered on behalf of ESFRS by Opinion Research Services (ORS), an independent specialist research practice. All the questions are optional and any information you provide will be processed by ORS in accordance with the latest Data Protection regulations; any personally identifiable information will be kept for no more than 12 months after any decisions have been finalised. ORS will produce an independent consultation report in which feedback from individual respondents will be anonymous, but views from organisations or someone acting in their official capacity may be attributed in full. For further information, please see www.esfrs.org/privacy-notice or www.ors.org.uk/privacy.
If you have any queries about the consultation, you can email ESFRS on consult@esfrs.org or ORS on ESFRS@ors.org.uk. You can contact the Market Research Society on 0800 975 9596 to confirm that ORS is a genuine research practice.