The Resources and Fire & Rescue Overview and Scrutiny Committee met to discuss several key issues, including fire service resources, library performance, the council's financial position, and treasury management. The committee agreed to the recommendations in the Quarter 1 Integrated Performance Report 2025/26 and heard that library visits are up 11% year on year. Members also discussed a petition regarding fire services in Nuneaton and the potential inaccuracies it contained.

Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service

A petition presented by the MP for Nuneaton, Jody Gosler, regarding the provision of a second fire appliance in Nuneaton was discussed, with several councillors raising concerns about inaccuracies in the petition. Councillor Sarah Boad, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, cited an example of an inaccuracy, saying that Ms Gosler had stated that firefighters would not enter a burning building until a second appliance arrived, which was completely incorrect . Councillor Dale Bridgewater, Portfolio Holder for Fire and Rescue and Community Safety, said he would consider the petition before responding to Ms Gosler and then share the response with all councillors and the committee. He also said that he would be sending a letter to the parliamentary committee regarding the matter, and welcomed the committee's backing of that letter.

Benjamin Brook, Chief Fire Officer, reassured residents that first responders are equipped to immediately enter a property and do not wait for a second crew. He also expressed his disappointment that incorrect and inaccurate information has been provided in a public forum .

Councillor Keith Kondakor raised concerns about whether there were enough resources in Nuneaton, given how busy the fire station is, and suggested that a meeting be held to discuss how to make the service more robust. He also noted instances when cover is provided by Leicestershire or Atherstone. Councillor Andy Crump said that Warwickshire Fire and Rescue had supported Leicestershire 12 times more often than Leicestershire had supported Warwickshire.

Councillor Bridgewater stated that the resource to risk system is sound and that the second fire engine was going over to Bedworth, providing better cover for the area.

Resourcing to Risk Evaluation

Councillor Boad asked about the report on resourcing to risk, and whether it would be a full 12 months from the plans' full implementation. Councillor Crump said that it would take at least 12 months to bed in and that it was important to be fair to the fire service. Mr Brook said he was happy to bring a paper describing the implementation and how it has been achieved, but that it would not be a full evaluation. Councillor Kondakor said that the interim update would be useful, particularly with the state of training a large number of staff.

Library Performance Report

Ayub Khan, Head of Libraries, Heritage and Culture and Registration, introduced the Library Performance Report, highlighting a staggering 11% increase in physical visits to libraries, bucking national trends. He noted that the core mission of the library service is to provide welcoming, inclusive and innovative spaces and connecting people with communities. He also noted that the service runs 18 council-run libraries and supports 11 community-managed libraries.

Councillor Michael Bannister, Portfolio Holder for Customer and Localities, said it was really nice to have something in his portfolio which he really enjoys and that he could see the value of it to the community.

Councillor Boad praised the value for money that libraries provide, noting that Lillington Library only has 1.6 full time staff. She also praised the imagination of the library staff and the fact that she receives email reminders when books are due back.

Councillor David Curtis noted that the library service is supporting other services to deliver their priorities as well. He asked if the administration intended to continue with the creating opportunities agenda and if there was an exit strategy when the National Portfolio Organisation¹ (NPO) funding finishes. Mr Khan said that they were already advocating for the next three year round and that all indications up to now are that Arts Council England² (ACE) see them as being an exemplar.

Councillor Kondakor noted that people going to events is great, but that it is a lot lower in Nuneaton. He asked if there was a reason why Nuneaton's attendance was running about half the attendance of some of the other libraries. He suggested having AI events to educate people on the topic and having regular events to draw customers in.

Library Management System

Councillor John Waine raised concerns about the new library management system, saying that he had had problems logging in and that it looked as if it wasn't fully tested before it was rolled out. Councillor Bannister said he would take that away and have a look at it.

Integrated Performance Report

Craig Cusack, Director of Enabling Services, introduced the Quarter 1 Integrated Performance Report 2025/26, noting that it was a new performance reporting style and that he hoped the committee agreed that it made the council's report clearer and more transparent. He drew attention to the fact that fire and rescue service improvement projects are well underway, response times are improving, and delivery of significant numbers of safe and well checks. He also noted that sickness absence was above the target of eight days, and that stress and mental health remain key drivers.

Councillor Kondakor raised concerns about cyber attacks, asking if the council had a radar in terms of the number of probes on their sites going up and if they had the same systems as companies like JLR. He asked if the council was waiting to be attacked or if they were doing something fundamentally different. Mr Cusack said that the attacks are in the hundreds of thousands if not millions per day, but that this is not unusual and that all public sector bodies are seeing this. He said that the greatest source of threat are people, through phishing attacks, and that the council has a strenuous training and monitoring program for that.

Councillor Cliff Brown said that phishing attacks seem to be occurring quite quickly and that people are getting unintended emails. He asked if the council was being inclined in the same way and if people were actually going out to residents and saying they were the county council and asking them to pay a bill. Mr Cusack said that they had not received any comments or complaints from residents that anything from the county council was being replicated.

Councillor Boad asked about the fire measures, specifically around response times. She asked if there was a target for this and what the spread of attendance times was. Mr Brook said that the performance measure is a 10 minute mean average to life and property instance and that the committee had agreed to look at the distribution curve of how often they have outliers to that 10 minutes.

Councillor Curtis asked if the new local government outcomes framework had been informed in consultation with the Local Government Association. Vanessa Belton, Business Intelligence Service Manager, said that it was a very comprehensive consultation and that they had been able to comment against the proposed measures.

Councillor Kondakor said that it would be useful to know how wide a section of measures there were and whether they compare like with like.

Mr Brown asked about the critical failure of IT systems, the risk position provision not being effectively aligned to the risk and demand within Warwickshire, and the inability to maintain statutory duties during local and/or national power outages. Mr Brook said that they work incredibly closely with ICT to make sure everything's managed in the appropriate way and that they have fallback business continuity arrangements to enable them to always be able to deploy their resources when they're needed. He also said that they work very closely with the county council with the local resilience forum and that they have backup generators and a level of diesel storage across their sites.

The committee agreed to the two recommendations on page 99 of the agenda.

Treasury Management Quarter 1 Update Report

Chris Norton, Head of Investment Order and Insurance, introduced the Treasury Management Quarter 1 Update Report, noting that the main tenet of treasury management is making sure cash is in the right place at the right time, so security and liquidity are the priorities. He said that the interest income they're getting is higher than the budget and so supporting the Medium Term Financial Strategy³ (MTFS). He also noted that the SEND overspend does affect cash slower than it would otherwise be.

Councillor Kondakor asked how the council was taking the profile of the SEND overspend, whether they were taking the worst case, the middle case, or the best case. He asked a similar question about the housing portfolio, and how the treasury was impacted by both of those. Mr Norton said that the SEND figure is about £80 million a year and that the property development ribbon housing assumes they get about £20 million a year back from them.

Councillor Curtis said that he always finds it quite helpful to look at the previous quarter or the previous year's same quarter to try and do a comparison, but that the format between quarter one last year's reporting and course one this year's reporting seems very different. He asked if it was possible for the format to be similar year on year. Mr Norton said that the reason for the change in the format is it's mostly guided by the template they get from their advisors and that the advisors have changed.

Councillor Boad asked if the SEND overspend was actual money that they've actually spent or if it was notional. She asked if they could literally run out of money one day. Rob Powell, Executive Director for Resources, said that it's less about whether you can balance the budget because the salary override has the effect of ignoring what what's gone out of the door, but it's becoming more of a cash flow issue. He said that they have a £100 million minimum balance that they have to have all the time from their treasury management strategy and that if they continue to overspend at £70 million going out the door more than they are getting in from government, it doesn't take a particularly good accountant to work out where that takes you. He said that cash flow and cash flow reporting is going to become more and more important.

Councillor Kondakor asked if they had modelled the five districts being folded into their treasury management as well and where that puts them for the medium and semi-long term. Mr Norton said that it was being actively looked at at the moment and that they were obviously stress testing the balance sheet.

Work Programme

Councillor Boad asked about the summary use of council's grants for 2023-24, saying that it was like 18 months after the end of that grant period and that she had expected it to be 24 25 rather than 23 24. She also asked about the report on resourcing to risk. Councillor Crump said that they would go back to the officers on the council grants and that the resourcing to risk would take at least 12 months to bed in.

Councillor Kondakor said that the interim update would be useful, particularly with the state training a large number of staff. He also said that Councillor Bridgewater would share his response to the MP and whether they spoke about that in the round at the same time as the resourcing to risk rather than having a specific agenda item.