Thanks for help with recruitment

Over the last three decades, fire services upanddowntheUK have experienced a significant reduction in the number of oncall firefighters. This issue was beginning to cause us significant problems in how we responded to emergency 999 calls. To address this issue, the service, supported by the Fire Authority launched a series of recruitment campaigns across Cambridgeshire. The first of thecampaignswaslaunched in early 2012. I would like to take the opportunity, on behalf of all of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority to thank the Peterborough Telegraph and local on- call firefighters for their assistance in helping our recruitment team to publicise these campaigns. In 2011, thefireservicereceived only 104 enquiries from people wanting to become an on- call firefighter. In 2012, this number rose to 758 due to publicity given by the local media. Thishasmeantthatthenumber of new on- call firefighters has risen over 400 per cent from 10 in 2011, to 41 in 2012 and for the first time in many years we are now recruiting more on- call firefighters than we are losing due to retirement, ill health or changes in circumstance. In Cambridgeshire they make up 56 per cent of the workforce andare generally located in rural communities, small towns and villages. Your efforts in supporting our campaign have greatly helped us to address what was becoming a real concern for the Service. This is certainly an excellent example of local media providing real aid and assistance to both the fire service and the communities.