Current Consultations

Automatic Fire Alarm Consultation 2024

Royal Berkshire Fire Authority is asking people to consider how their fire and rescue service responds to Automatic Fire Alarms as part of a public consultation. The consultation will run from Monday, 4 March to Monday, 13 May 2024.  

The consultation, which will run for 10 weeks, is asking for people’s views on how their fire and rescue service responds to Automatic Fire Alarms in buildings such as shops, offices, leisure centres, colleges, sports grounds, libraries, schools and health centres.

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service will continue to send fire engines to automatic fire alarm notifications at higher risk buildings, where anyone sleeps, such as hotels, hospitals, care homes, houses, and flats.

Most importantly, the Service will continue to maintain an emergency response to 999 calls, confirmed fires and to automatic fire alarm notifications from residential homes. 

RBFRS needs to change the way it responds to automatic fire alarm notifications to ensure communities and firefighters are kept safe. This is because 99% of the automatic fire alarm calls are false alarms. Attending these types of incidents causes significant disruption to the delivery of essential services and training.

The Fire Authority is encouraging as many people as possible to have their say on the three options detailed within the Automatic Fire Alarm Consultation Document.

To take part in the consultation, residents can: 

Complete the survey. 
Email – consultations@rbfrs.co.uk. 
Phone – 0118 938 4331.

The Service will also be holding online Q&A sessions as part of the consultation, which will take place on: 

Residents’ can register in advance on the RBFRS website.

If anyone would like a hard copy or require assistance with accessing the information in an alternative format to the below options, please contact us using any of the methods above. 

After the consultation has closed, all feedback received will be conscientiously considered by the Fire Authority at a meeting in June 2024.

Key Documents

Alternative Formats

Languages

The web version has been created to be more accessible, easier to search, and can be translated into different languages using the Google Translate tool on RBFRS’ website. Additionally, the survey is available in a selection of languages. If you need the survey in an alternative language, please contact us.