Hertfordshire's chief fire officers have moved to police force’s Stanborough HQ

Chief fire officers are now operating from Hertfordshire Police’s headquarters – in the most visible sign yet of the two emergency services working more closely together.

Back in 2018, plans were floated that would have seen governance of the fire service – which currently sits with Hertfordshire County Council – move over to the Police and Crime Commissioner David Lloyd.

Mr Lloyd – who submitted a formal bid to the Home Office – suggested that bringing the emergency services together would cut costs, enable better joint working and improve public safety.

But he ultimately ‘suspended’ the controversial bid, after reaching agreement with the county council that there would be greater collaboration.

At a meeting of the county council’s community safety and waste management cabinet panel on Wednesday, November 18, Mr Lloyd revealed that senior fire officers moved in to the police’s Stanborough HQ last month.

In a written report he said: “In a huge step forward for police and fire collaboration, 23 October saw Fire Chief Officers move to the Police HQ site at Stanborough, the first step in co-locating Police and Fire HQs on the same site.

“The business case for co-locating Control Rooms is currently in development as are plans to re-develop both the Stanborough site and the training facility at Longfield.

“Discussions are currently underway about how to rebrand the site to reflect the changes to usage.”

And at the meeting Mr Lloyd said that the move was a good thing ‘symbolically’ of the two emergency services working closely together.

During the meeting he also talked about a move towards a ‘prevention first’ approach at the constabulary.

And he said that in terms of ‘prevention first’ there was a lot that could be learned from the county’s Fire and Rescue Service, whose prevention work had led to a lot fewer house fires than in the 1970s.

Commenting o the greater collaboration following the meeting, leader of Hertfordshire County Council Cllr David Williams, said: “Hertfordshire County Council has long recognised the growing need for emergency services to work together outside of the incidents they attend.

“The creation of a joint headquarters is just one of the ways we are working with the Police and Crime Commissioner to strengthen collaboration between the emergency services in Hertfordshire.”

And Hertfordshire’s chief fire officer Darryl Keen, said: “We are looking forward to extending our collaboration with police colleagues by sharing a single headquarters building.

“We have already started moving in on a small scale and when it is safe to work from the office as normal, myself and other senior colleagues will be formally moving to our new workplace at Stanborough where we can work more closely with our police counterparts on community safety projects that will positively impact the county.

“The official relocation of Fire and Rescue HQ to the existing Stanborough site used by Herts Constabulary will take place in 2021.”

Commenting on the submission that was made to thge Home Office in 2018, Police and Crine Commissioner Mr Lloyd said: “That option is no longer on the agenda, we will not be going back to that old proposal which we decided not to pursue.

“A lot of work of positive collaboration has taken place, with more planned, and it continues to bring benefits for public safety.”