Cheshire chief fire officer Paul Hancock and his deputy Mark Cashin are provided with expensive cars that are tax exempt because they count as emergency vehicles even though both only attended one incident in two years.

Mr Hancock, who is also chief executive, has a £52,713 Land Rover Discovery and Mr Cashin has a £48,198 BMW X5 as part of their financial package.

Each is unmarked but fitted with covert blue lights and sirens in the grille.

HM Revenue & Customs says emergency vehicles are exempt from tax for on-call employees of emergency services. But it recently emerged both officers only attended one incident each in the period 2016-18 and not on blue lights.

The scene in Bosley
The principal officers are on call to attend serious incidents like the Bosley mill explosion, near Macclesfield, which killed four people.

However, Cheshire Fire Authority insists the cars, which were registered in 2015 and 2016 respectively, attract no personal tax liability and claims the vehicles ‘can be used for personal purposes as well as official business use’.

This is because the two principal officers are deemed to be ‘‘permanently on-call’.

A response prepared for The Chronicle states: “The principal officers are, according to their contracts, required to be on continuous duty. They take it in turns to provide primary and secondary response, (primary response is immediate and secondary response is expected within eight hours).

“The fire authority provides the principal officers with vehicles to allow them to meet their contractual and operational obligations. As the principal officers are on continuous duty the question of personal use does not arise.”

Firefighters from Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service are rolling up their sleeves for charity
Firefighters from Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service are rolling up their sleeves for charity

The issue of the ‘provided cars’ arose after retired Chester firefighter Andy Spencer asked Cheshire Fire Authority back in February whether the vehicles needed to be ‘luxury’ standard after the authority confirmed both officers only attended one incident each in a two-year period.

He said: “Derbyshire CFO currently drives a four-year-old pool car which is a Toyota Avensis valued at less than £4K. That demonstrates real austerity.”

His question led to a report being prepared for the authority’s pay and performance committee which explained that four-wheel drive vehicles were provided to the principal officers following a ‘bad winter’ in 2011 to enable the managers to fulfil their duties even when there are ‘difficult driving conditions’. Members decided they were comfortable with the current arrangements.

Mr Hancock is due to retire soon after 34 years with the UK fire service once his replacement had been appointed. The job advert for his replacement offers a £145,000 salary, up to £10,000 relocation package and a car.