Just days into the job, the new fire chief for Cambridgeshire and his employer have been slammed for taking advantage of controversial arrangements that allowed him to access his pension and then to walk back into the same job, and to subsequently receive a promotion to the rank of chief fire officer.
Chris Strickland, who formerly served as the county’s deputy chief officer, will begin his new role which attracts a huge salary of £140,000 following Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority's confirmation of his his appointment on 30 March.
Criticising the appointment, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and firefighters in Cambridgeshire say that the whole process has been highly questionable and that government action to close the loophole is long overdue.
Andy Dark, FBU assistant general secretary, said: “The fire authority’s decision to reappoint an officer who has already retired is perverse, but the blame here lies with the government.
“The Home Office recently assumed responsibility for the fire service. Like DCLG before it, the department has had ample time to strengthen the rules in order to prevent this from happening. This government has savaged frontline firefighters’ pensions and overseen stringent restrictions on pay increases since 2010. The government is quick to attack firefighters’ conditions but has done nothing to address the issue of re-engagement of the high-earners at principal management level.
“The retention of ‘retired’ senior officers whose pension provide an income which firefighters can only dream of reduces the opportunities available for the next generation of fire service leaders to progress.”
The new chief’s record has also been brought into question after it emerged he was part of the team that oversaw the ‘multi-star’ fiasco, where Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service bought experimental fire engines at a cost of £1.3m – only for them to regularly break down, leaving them out of service for considerable amounts of time.
The revelations surrounding the appointment are likely to further hit morale within Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service. A survey conducted in 2015 revealed that only 38% of whole time firefighters were satisfied with service leadership, while only 26% said they trusted senior managers.
