REGIONAL and rural councils have told the state government they want to hand over control of local Rural Fire Service operations, citing rising costs and widespread dissatisfaction dealing with the organisation.
Delegates at the Shires Association annual conference in Sydney this week ''overwhelmingly'' voted to support a motion calling on the RFS to take over all council-owned service equipment, vehicles and assets, the Shires Association of NSW president, Ray Donald, said.
"This conference decision is about the ineffective interaction with RFS management, and councils are sick of working through the muddied waters of the costly RFS administration,'' Cr Donald said.
Under the proposals, local government would provide only supplementary voluntary support to the RFS rather than contributing towards the cost of running the service - divesting any role in management, maintenance and administration.
Cr Donald said the decision was not a reflection on the quality of the volunteers and councils would still seek input through local liason committees, but they were not in a position to fund the increasing costs of running the service.
''The stronger financial institution needs to cover those costs and we believe that should be the state government,'' he said.
The state government provides 14.6 per cent of the service's $270 million budget to local government's 11.7 per cent, with the rest provided by the insurance industry.
Cr Donald said the relationship between councils and RFS management had also deteriorated beyond repair.
''I think if the government was more directly involved in paying those wages then they would be more aware of the costs and made sure those costs were contained,'' he said.
The RFS Commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, said it was ironic the association was seeking to divest itself given the conference theme of ''keeping the local in local government''.
''The second biggest strength of the RFS [after volunteers] would have to be its local basis, its local foundation, and that is under the auspices of local government and local communities,'' he said.
''I think it's also important to acknowledge that today the contribution of local government is at an all-time low in terms of their percentage to fund the organisation.''
The Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Michael Gallacher, told the conference yesterday the government was undertaking two reviews - emergency service funding arrangements and another examining their effectiveness and procedures.
The Shires Association supports a broad-based property tax to fund the emergency services.