Clause 41 - Fire hydrants
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
10:30 am
Mr Nick Raynsford (Minister of State (Local and Regional Government), Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
I have a great deal of sympathy for the hon. Gentleman, as he has clearly been landed with the task of moving the amendment because his colleague, the hon. Member for Teignbridge, has had to go to an Adjournment debate in Westminster Hall—as, indeed, has my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary. The hon. Gentleman has been landed with this somewhat bizarre amendment.
I understand that the hon. Member for Teignbridge has a background as an architect, and I thought that, if he was here in time to move the amendment, we would hear a very interesting case for neo-Gothic hydrant markers or some other bizarre arrangement, and I am pleased that the hon. Member for Southport recognises that that is not appropriate.
Fire and rescue authorities are aware that they must balance the need for visibility of notices and marks for fire hydrants with respect for the location in which they are sited and the wishes of the owners of property, whether listed buildings or otherwise. Although the notices are the responsibility of the water undertaker, they are fixed in a position agreed by the authority, and rightly so, because they are there for operational reasons. They are sometimes affixed by the authority, because it is important that firefighters arriving at an incident can locate the nearest hydrant without delay. I understand that fire and rescue authorities discuss with property owners the siting of any marker and, when necessary, use alternative means of indicating the hydrant, such as painting its cover yellow. In addition, many authorities are developing the use of global positioning systems to locate hydrants to reduce their dependence on notices or marks.
The amendment would not be helpful and it is somewhat bizarre that it would be appended to a subsection that is concerned with expenses rather than the siting of hydrants. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will withdraw it.