Introduction from Andy Roe, London Fire Commissioner

When I became London Fire Commissioner last year, I spoke of the enormous privilege I felt in being given the opportunity to lead the London Fire Brigade into a new decade.

I am responsible for the 5,700 people who work for London Fire Brigade, serving and protecting London. I want you to have a say as Londoners in how we do that, because it’s your Fire Brigade.

This consultation is your opportunity to give us your views.

Every fire and rescue service in the country must by law produce a plan that identifies the risks that people may face in their everyday lives and how it will protect them from those risks. This includes everything from fire to flood, terrorism, building collapse and traffic accidents. This plan is called a Community Risk Management Plan.

In the past we wrote that plan and asked Londoners what they thought about it. This time we want to take a different approach. We started the process earlier this year by talking to groups of Londoners to find out what they thought about us, the risks they face in their communities and how they would like to see us work. Those meetings told us that while we are trusted, you didn’t see enough of us and didn’t always understand everything we did or what we could offer you.

This information has helped us think about what changes we might need to make but also to understand how the risks in London have changed. It has made us think about how open our fire stations are, what our firefighters and specialist staff do each day to serve you and how we can make that more visible.

During September I am asking people to tell us what they think about those changing risks, and how the Brigade responds, through a public consultation. I particularly want to hear from the communities we serve – the people who live, work in and visit London. I want to hear from our fantastic staff who deliver our service every day. And I want to hear from our many partners such as London’s other emergency services, London’s Councils and the Greater London Authority who also serve those communities.

We will then use those views to help write our plan, which will be published in April next year.