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Both the Chief Fire Officers’ Association (CFOA) and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) have welcomed the recently issued review into the severe floods in summer 2007, which calls for ‘urgent and fundamental changes’ to deal with the increased risk of flooding.
With emergency resources stretched to the limit during the floods, the independent review recommends a host of improvements – including a new Cabinet Committee dedicated to flood risk, better resources, equipment and funding, and a new National Resilience Forum for flooding.
The review also presses the case for the fire and rescue service in England and Wales to be given a statutory duty to respond to inland flood and water rescue – in stark contrast to a recent report by chief fire and rescue advisor, Sir Ken Knight, which argued that a statutory duty was not necessary.
Both CFOA and the FBU have put their weight behind the Pitt Review’s call for the Government to ‘show strong leadership and set out the process and timescale for improving resilience’.
On the issue of a new statutory duty, CFOA said the Pitt recommendations ‘will bring clarity to a situation which is presently confused’.
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