A NEW chairman has been appointed for the Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Authority.

County councillor Spencer Flower was unanimously elected to the role at a meeting of the service yesterday.

He replaces Cllr Rebecca Knox who served at the chairman from April 2016 when the authority came into being.

While Cllr Knox will remain on the authority, she has stepped aside from chairmanship because of her commitments as Leader of Dorset County Council.

On accepting his nomination, Cllr Flower said: “It is a great privilege for any elected Member to be made Chairman of the Fire and Rescue Authority, and I will do my very best to maintain the high standards set down by my predecessor.

“I am looking forward to working with the Chief Fire Officer, other members of the Strategic Leadership Team and Authority colleagues to continue delivering a safe, strong and sustainable fire and rescue service for the communities of Bournemouth, Dorset, Poole, Swindon and Wiltshire.”

“Rebecca Knox is a hard act to follow, having done an outstanding job as the Authority’s first Chairman, and her leadership in the run-up to combination was also exemplary. I was delighted to see the whole Authority united in recording a formal vote of thanks to her.”

Chief Fire Officer Ben Ansell also praised the leadership of Cllr Knox.

He said: “Her inspirational leadership in the run up to, and during, the combination of Wiltshire and Dorset was fundamental to the success of the merger.

At the same meeting, the authority also evaluated a report from officer Ansell on the DWFR service’s performance over the past year.

The report showed a downward trend in the number of fires, and especially, deliberate fires.

It also stated that in-school fire safety lessons were delivered to more than 22,000 children and 17,000 road safety presentations delivered via Safe Drive Stay Alive.

Officer Ansell said: “There is still much to do and we have a number of significant pieces of work underway to develop our role in supporting colleagues in the health sector, alongside other projects that are focused on the continued alignment of our procedures.

“We are also introducing a fifth priority, ‘supporting and developing our people’, and our aspirations across the whole Service will be set out in our new Community Safety Plan, which is due to be published soon.”