Peter has more than 30 years' experience as a firefighter and has been with the Tyne and Wear service since 2020.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 What do you think are the challenges facing the service and what are your priorities as
00:03 the new boss?
00:04 There's a number of challenges that face Tyne and Wear and indeed all fire and rescue services.
00:11 The budget is always a headline issue so there's a lot of cuts in many years past and certainly
00:18 in my time in Tyne and Wear which has been over the last three years it's been not as
00:23 severe as it has.
00:24 But one year budgeting does make it challenging to get a longer term forecast.
00:28 But nonetheless we're in a reasonable shape and that's allowing us to support and invest
00:34 in the front line and indeed the service.
00:38 As the new chief I get the benefit of being a deputy for the last few years.
00:43 There's a continuity in terms of some of the plans we set up.
00:46 So over the last three years under my time as deputy and now as chief we've completely
00:53 refreshed the fleet.
00:54 So we've replaced every single fire engine with a new one so we've got the full changeover
00:59 appliances which include new technology and clean cab which is about improving firefighter
01:04 safety.
01:05 When I took over this job my priorities are going to be focusing on making sure that this
01:11 workforce in this place is as inclusive a place as it can be for the people who are
01:16 here already and those who might aspire to come and work with us in the future.
01:21 And to do that I'm going to focus on working with the staff to make sure that when the
01:25 community needs us we're not only available but we've got the right training.
01:30 Not just for the fires that we respond to but for the changing risks in society whether
01:34 that be people presenting on bridges, people turning up in rivers, adverse weather conditions.
01:40 These are things that you're seeing in society more and more.
01:43 So I'm going to continue to adapt this service to better meet those changing demands of society
01:48 and to do that we'll focus on the skills that we need.
01:51 But I also want to do that working with partners and looking at how do we get closer to the
01:56 community safety agenda in its widest sense.
01:59 So you saw a bit of that from town and weird during Covid where we had firefighters out
02:04 giving vaccinations, we had members of staff running vaccination centres, we were working
02:08 on delivering food parcels, splitting up the PPE loads.
02:13 We demonstrated it as a fire and rescue service we've got a lot of skills, we've got a lot
02:16 of experience and we've got a can-do attitude.
02:19 So I'm going to look at how can we deeper integrate into public life and help to address
02:25 the many needs of our communities and society in the widest sense.
02:29 Whether that's through health, whether that's through education, whether that's through
02:32 prevention and of course we'll always have the response element and I want to make sure
02:36 we focus on that and redouble our efforts to ensure firefighter safety because firefighter
02:41 safety assures public safety.