Fire chiefs consider sharing ‘hub’ with city’s other 999 services

There is already a fire station in Stocksbridge, while the nearest police station is a mile or so away in Deepcar.

Sharing services would therefore mean either developing a new building in Stocksbridge, or extensively renovating the existing small fire station in Manchester Road.

In a report set to go before the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority next Monday, temporary chief fire officer Jamie Courtney says the fire service has been “in discussions with a variety of organisations over the last 12 months” to discuss everything from a “simple sharing agreement” to “more complex multi-agency arrangements”.

One idea being mooted is developing a “new property at Stocksbridge” which could “serve as a hub” for fire, police and ambulance services.

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue (SYFR) said it was too early to comment on the proposals in detail, but added that a “number of options are being explored, to reduce our costs and increase our partnership working”.

According to the report written for next Monday’s authority meeting there is an “ideal of wishing to share services in many organisations”.

The report says: “SYFR is committed to exploring opportunities to enter into collaborative or shared services, where this would benefit the authority and other partners, and remains alert to possibilities where they may arise through the coming months.”

It adds that the Lifewise Centre, at Magna in Rotherham, has already been developed in conjunction with South Yorkshire Police and “there is scope for greater collaboration generally”.

“Collaboration is likely to grow over the coming year as both services look to deliver community safety in the most effective way with the resources available”, the report says.

“SYFR are currently gauging interest from South Yorkshire Police and the Yorkshire Ambulance Service in the development of a new property at Stocksbridge, which could serve as a hub for all three services.”

In the shorter term, a spokesman for the service said, there are also plans to station an ambulance at Stocksbridge fire station so ambulance crews can use the facilities there.

The spokesman said: “This relates to a request that Yorkshire Ambulance Service have made to use our Stocksbridge station as a standby point for an ambulance, so they’ve got somewhere where they can park in a strategic location.

“There is already a similar existing arrangement in place at Aston Park fire station.”

The report set to go before the fire authority adds that “some of the work is still aspirational” and “more needs to be done to develop potential initiatives to a meaningful conclusion”.

The suggestion of sharing buildings comes at a time when South Yorkshire Police is already selling off some of its redundant estate to try and cope with huge budget cuts of more than £40m over the next four years.

West Bar police station in Sheffield has already been sold and a string of other buildings, some with values of less than £5,000, are also ready to be sold in a move that could net the force as much as £2m.

Eight police boxes around Sheffield have been put on the market, all single-storey brick or stone buildings with kitchen and toilet facilities.

Originally used for officers to contact headquarters, they have become increasingly surplus to requirements since officers began carrying police radios.

Section houses, formerly used as accommodation for unmarried police officers but now redundant in modern policing, have also been put on the market.