CORNWALL Council has criticised an inspection of its fire and rescue service after claiming it was misleading.

In December Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) was given an “inadequate” rating from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMIC) for its response times to fires and emergencies.

The rating was based on CFRS having set a target for attending all incidents within 10 minutes but having an overall average of more than 12 minutes.

But Paul Masters, strategic director for neighbourhoods at Cornwall Council, which is responsible for the fire service, said that when compared to other fire services Cornwall was doing well.

He said: “If you want to raise your blood pressure look at the other fire service inspection reports.

“They said we have the worst response times in the country. When I read the other reports we are not the worst response times in the country by a country mile.

“We talk about the 10-minute response time target and our 12-minute average, some authorities have a 20-minute response time target.”

CFRS has a 10-minute response time target and the report from the HMIC shows that it managed to achieve that for 74% of all incidents.

Yet Isle of Wight Fire Service shows that it has targets of responding to critical incidents within 10 minutes for its first fire engine and 15 minutes with a second. For all other incidents it has a target of 20 minutes. It was rated as “good” for responding to fires and emergencies.

Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, like Cornwall, has a target response time of 10 minutes but only met this target on 59.7% of incidents. It also received a “good” rating for response times.

The inspection of CFRS was the first to be carried out and saw the service rated as “good” for people and “requires improvement” for effectiveness and efficiency.

Of the 11 areas assessed CFRS was rated as “good” for six, “requires improvement” for four and “inadequate” for one.

Since receiving the inspection report Cornwall Council has set up a panel which will oversee work which is being done to assess the issues raised by the HMIC.

After the inspection last summer the HMIC sent a follow-up letter after another check to see what had been done and said that good progress had been made.

Mr Masters said: “I am not saying that everything is rosy. We can all make improvements all the time. But don’t take from this report that we have a fire and rescue service that has major issues.”