Clause 41 - Fire hydrants
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
10:45 am
Mr Nick Raynsford (Minister of State (Local and Regional Government), Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
My hon. Friend raises some important points. I am a little concerned to hear the figures of the estimated cost in Dorset of repairing damage caused by acts of vandalism to fire hydrants.
The regime that will be put in place by the Bill, which largely re-enacts the provisions of section 14 of the 1947 Act, provides that the repair of hydrants will be charged to fire and rescue authorities unless it is clear that the damage was done by other licensed users. Clearly, fire and rescue authorities need to record the use of hydrants and to develop good working relationships with water undertakers through liaison groups, to ensure that they pay only reasonable costs.
The issue is an important one and the national water liaison group, which includes representatives from the fire and rescue authorities, the water undertakers, DEFRA and the ODPM, has issued guidance on the management of hydrants to reduce the costs associated with inspection and testing and to ensure that brigades have a policy on dealing with the decommissioning of hydrants no longer required. This is an important issue. I am slightly concerned, because it is not an issue that the Local Government Association raised in its briefing on the Bill. I undertake to my hon. Friend to look into the matter and to write to him about it.
On my hon. Friend's technical question about subsection (8), level 2 fines do not exceed £400.