Fire facts are under dispute

5:36pm Thursday 15th March 2007

I am writing with reference to the article Fire Chief: Targets not missed'. The reason for the letter is the fact this article further confuses the issue of fire cover in Radlett.

The third paragraph of the article talks about repeated requests for information we failed to provide'. To my knowledge there was one Freedom of Information request to my office that was being dealt with but the information was asked for too late to meet your publishing deadline.

Secondly, on measurement of attendance times. This has been measured from the time a fire engine is assigned to a call at least since 1993. The draft plan stated this as time of call. This admittedly caused confusion as some people thought this to be the time of the first 999 call into fire control. This was clarified long before the final plan was published, but your paper continues to imply some underhand plan to change the measurement of attendance times.

Lastly, I recognise you printed the explanation for the reported 54 minute attendance time. There is, however, no acknowledgement that you are printing misleading information based on analysis of figures by a member of the public who neither has all the relevant information nor the expertise to understand those figures.

Roy Wilsher Chief Fire Officer

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service

Editor's note: We asked Hertfordshire County Council press office for the correct figures and analysis before the original article was published two weeks ago, but only received them on Wednesday this week. The press office has apologised for the delay.

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