DORSET Fire Authority members are set to discuss an independent report outlining a radical transformation of England’s fire services.

The ‘Facing the Future’ paper, written by Sir Ken Knight and published last month, laid out a number of ways cash-strapped fire services could save money.

Sir Ken, who recently retired as the government’s chief fire and rescue advisor, suggested tens of millions of pounds could be saved by merging services, introducing new shift patterns, forging private sector partnerships and increasing the use of retained firefighters.

According to Dorset Fire and Rescue Service (DFRS) chief Darran Gunter, more than 80 per cent of DFRS fire engines are already crewed by retained staff.

Mr Gunter, who insists DFRS is looking at working more closely with neighbouring fire and rescue services, will discuss the implications of Sir Ken’s report alongside DFRS’s quarterly monitoring report figures at service headquarters on Monday.

“The local and national debate caused by Sir Ken Knight’s report is welcome,” he said.

“Throughout Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole, 83 per cent of our fire engines are already crewed by retained (on-call) staff, who account for 65 per cent of all operational staff.

“These figures demonstrate that our use of retained staff is already far ahead of the figure of 50 per cent that Sir Ken is suggesting.”

Mr Gunter also stressed DFRS is in the lowest quarter in terms of cost of all fire and rescue services.

“However, we will not be complacent and will use the findings in the report to identify further savings including working closer with our neighbours.”