1. Foreword

Welcome to the Environment Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy for County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service (CDDFRS).

Our Service, governed by the County Durham and Darlington Combined Fire Authority (CFA), is responsible for making sure that all our communities in County Durham and Darlington are protected as far as possible from the risks we face. As well as fire emergencies we are here to respond to many types of incidents such as water and animal rescues, flooding and road traffic collisions. Our protection and prevention work forms the foundation of what we do to minimise risk and together with our vital emergency response function we maintain services which are effective and resilient.

Our vision is to have the safest people and safest places and we will strive to achieve this by delivering a professional, innovative and effective FRS with our communities at the heart of everything we do.

To ensure we are accountable to you, we produce a series of documents which set out our plans for the future. Our Community Risk Profile (CRP) and Station Plans set out the risks we face. Our Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) shows how we allocate our resources to tackle those risks and our Service Strategies show you the detail of how we will manage the challenges that our various Sections face.

You can find all our Service Plan documents on our website using the link below:
https://www.ddfire.gov.uk/service-plans

Every year we ensure that our services can be delivered within the budget we are set. 
Since 2010 we have had our government funding reduced and we expect to continue to face a very challenging financial climate in light of the current economic conditions and restrictions on the amount of income we can raise through Council Tax. 

The next three years are therefore likely to require further innovation and changes to the way we operate, and the Environment Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy will help us to achieve this.

Our core strength is our people who are proud to work for an organisation connected closely with its communities and who are genuinely committed to changing and saving people’s lives. 

We cannot provide our services without support from our excellent staff, and we would like to thank them for their continued hard work and dedication. Our partner organisations and neighbouring FRSs also deserve great credit for supporting and collaborating with us in the work that we do.