Highland firefighters could stop attending automated fire alarms at business premises as part of measures to cut costs.
Last year nearly 40% of call outs for Highland and Islands Fire and Rescue Service were false alarms triggered by automated systems.
In a report to next week’s Highland and Islands Fire Board meeting, chief fire officer David Wynne said the number of false alarms had been increasing and reached 2,086 out of 5,300 last year.
Automated systems are increasingly being installed by businesses and when it is activated, the system contacts the fire brigade.
Mr Wynne said that in 2009/10 the service spent nearly 20,000 person hours attending false alarms, of which nearly 14,000 related to retained stations. The cost to the service of calling out retained firefighters was £195,000, with an additional £40,000 in “disturbance fees”.
The service is now monitoring these alarms to target offending organisations and reduce the number of call-outs.
However, stopping attendance at these incidents is one of a number of measures being considered nationally to save money for the fire brigade.
Inverness Chamber of Commerce chief executive Stewart Nicol said: “I can understand why they are taking that view when there are pressures on costs in the public sector. I would urge businesses to ensure that their systems are properly installed and maintained to avoid alarms going off.”
The fire board will discuss measures for saving money at their meeting in Stornoway on Tuesday.
Local MSP Fergus Ewing, Minister for Community Safety, will also attend the board meeting to give a presentation on the outlook for Scottish Government expenditure.
A separate report to the board states that the service will have to make budget savings of 5% in each of the next two years – amounting to more than £1million.
Mr Wynne said: “The challenge, for the service, in delivering such significant savings should not be underestimated, with 78% of its entire cost base attributable directly to front line services.”
Savings have already been identified by restructuring staff, loan charges and making better use of video-conferencing. However, further savings are needed so that the service can meet its target for 2012/13.
Financial reports which will go before the board show that this year HIFRS has an overspend of £143,000 on paying retained firefighters to fight wildfires.
The report by chief fire officer David Wynne says that this was due to the large number of prolonged wildfires this year. It is currently predicted that the service will be £25,000 under budget by the end of March.