North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority is encouraging people to get involved in helping to plan how fire and rescue services should be developed in North Wales in the future.

It is inviting general views about future development before starting to develop plans for 2018/19 and beyond.

The Authority aims to keep trying to improve its services in the short term as well as consider the well-being of future generations of people in the area – whilst considering the costs involved and ensuring services are affordable.

Following the recent council elections the new Authority will now start to develop its plans for future services. This consultation comes after the Authority has committed to consult publicly on the steps to be taken during 2018/19 towards achieving its long-term well-being goals, however the budget for 2018/19 will be based on previously known and anticipated costs for that year.

The Authority has an excellent record of managing its money and has continued to deliver prevention, protection and response services to high standards despite significant cost-cutting. Its concern is for the whole area and population of North Wales - What are your thoughts on this matter?

Following the last consultation, the Authority has already adopted two long-term objectives at the beginning of 2017: to support people to prevent accidental fires in the home and stay safe if they do occur, and to do all we can to ensure North Wales can continue to rely on first class fire and rescue services.

This consultation focuses now on how the new Authority convened after the local elections can develop its own plans for next year and beyond.

The more people get involved, the better are the prospects of achieving the right balance of services and the more the Authority can be confident that the detailed action plans developed will deliver exactly what the people of North Wales want.

The public can find out more about getting involved by logging on to the website www.nwales-fireservice.org.uk, following @northwalesfire and via www.facebook.com/northwalesfireservice Responses must be forwarded by post or e-mail by the deadline on 31^st July 2017.

The consultation document ‘Developing the Fire and Rescue Service for the future’ can be found here.

The Authority will consider its future plans in light of the responses received before publishing its final 2018-19 plan on the Authority's website.