A North Wales Fire Service boss addressing complaints from whistleblowers has admitted “we haven’t got everything right”.

Assistant chief fire officer (ACFO) Richard Fairhead made the admission in an interview about issues raised by anonymous firefighters.

He accepted there were legitimate questions over recruitment of retained firefighters, coverage of North Wales’ largely rural geographical area and concerns over temporary promotions.

“Yes we haven’t got everything right, yes there are concerns, but there’s a balance to that, he said.

“I do believe we are an organisation that has demonstrated we do care for our staff.

“We do what we can to facilitate and make things better for everybody – but the bottom line is at some stage we have to say ‘this is how we do it’.

“It’s disappointing to see anonymous things coming out. I’d much prefer to have that discussion with people and reassure them and explain to them.”

A major issue raised was security for staff and firefighters sleeping in vehicles.

One said: “With retained firefighters there are no permanent postings.

“Previously I would be posted to one station and given a month to find permanent accommodation for me and my family or to get digs.

“They won’t give people permanent positions and you can be moved the next day.

“With most digs you need to sign up for a certain amount of time but you can’t say how long you’re going to be there now.

“Because of this some people sleep in their cars or vans outside stations when they’re on call. It’s extremely common.”

ACFO Fairhead refuted staff would be moved at a day’s notice, saying: “They would be given two or three months’ notice.

“If they moved (near to their base station) and bought a house there, I wouldn’t move them.

“Everyone who works on a day crewed station is paid a rent, fuel and heat allowance.

“I am aware some people did start trying to sleep in a van at the station. As far as I was aware that had stopped.

“It’s not what I would want. I would want them to have a proper bed and facilities.

“If anyone was sleeping in a car or a van that wasn’t designed for it, I wouldn’t be happy with that.

“I would urge those people to come to us and say ‘I’m having real problems’. Nobody has come to us.”

Whistleblowers claim coverage and response by the service was not good enough with as few as one-third of pumps available on daytime shifts.

ACFO Fairhead said: “We do use whole-time pumps and staff to cover all of North Wales.

“Our whole-time staff and pumps in Llandudno aren’t allocated to Llandudno, they’re allocated to North Wales.

“They’re based in Llandudno. We won’t move a pump from Llandudno if we haven’t got the retained cover in Llandudno to cover that.

“We do have to move them around to provide that balance of cover across the service. It does happen. It’s something we would like not to happen.”

He refuted claims up to two-thirds of pumps might be unavailable for daytime shifts.

“I don’t think that’s correct. “That has never happened. I have never seen that. There will be days when there’s only 50 per cent of them available.”

The service works on a model of 20 pumps available during the day and 38 at night when fires are most dangerous, because people are asleep.

“Based on the planning we do that’s an acceptable risk. That doesn’t include pumps on RDS stations so we may have four or five of those as well.

“Two of our stations on Anglesey – one’s in Beaumaris and one’s in Rhosneigr – they’re quite small towns.

“The number of people who want to be firefighters in those towns, villages really, are quite low and we struggle.

“So yeah there are places on Anglesey, the Llyn Peninsula and the A5 corridor…I’m pleased our staff are concerned because it concerns us, which is why we spend an awful lot of time looking at how we can make sure cover’s there.

“There are issues in some of the rural areas. We are working really hard to change that.”

He said the service had increased its retained firefighters from 390 to 423 since 2016 but accepted recruitment was a constant struggle.

He said: “I’m proud of our RDS staff during the pandemic. I don’t doubt their commitment to balance their home life and their work and finding time for duty.

“If we could get more RDS staff in that would be fantastic and we are recruiting. If they live within five or six minutes of a station we will be recruiting.”

On the subject of promotions, ACFO Fairhead said it was “not uncommon” for all fire services to use temporary promotions.

It gave people the opportunity to see if they suited the role and employers used them as a “development tool”.

“We do accept there’s a lot of temporary promotion across the service but every one of those people has a full-time job and permanent contract in their other role.

“I know there’s some concern about detriment to their pension. It’s extremely complex.

“If people are temporarily promoted, yes they’re on a slightly different way of being calculated but they get an additional pension benefit for the pay they are getting.”

A spokesman for the North Wales branch of the FBU said they had a “positive working relationship with management” and were making progress.

He added: “The FBU in North Wales is fully aware of the concerns raised by staff, our officials remain committed to the ongoing negotiations with NWFRS senior managers.

“The FBU’s priority is to find ways to address these issues as a matter of urgency.”