The capital programme approved by the Fire Authority in February contained a scheme in 2014/15 for the procurement of three new appliances at a total cost of £660,000. Officers have been informed that, due to new European emission regulations, the purchase price and running costs of appliances will increase for all new LGV vehicles bought after April 2014. It is estimated that each appliance will cost an additional £10,000 and running costs over the 15 year life will exceed an additional £10,000 per vehicle. In order to mitigate these additional costs, orders for the new appliances had to be placed by Monday 22 April 2013.
As a result of this development, the Chief Fire Officer secured the approval of the Chair and the Vice Chair to bring forward the scheme for appliances from 2014/15 to 2013/14, to take advantage of these developments for the Fire Authority. This approval was sought in conjunction with the Treasurer and the Monitoring Officer.
The Fire Authority’s financial regulations state that approval of the Authority should be obtained for this variation to its capital programme, and members are now asked to retrospectively approve the transfer of the 2014/15 appliance replacement scheme to 2013/14. No other changes are necessary to the 2013/14 programme in light of this change, and there are no revenue consequences of the movement of this scheme in 2013/14, as the scheme is to be funded from existing balances.
