A ROLE has been created to help bring the operations of a police force and fire rescue service closer together.

North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service are both headed by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Julia Mulligan, whose role is to mainly hold both services to account, commission services and deal with conduct issues and major complaints.

The new role of managing director for ‘Enable North Yorkshire’ will work under the commissioner – in between North Yorkshire Police’s chief constable Lisa Winward and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue’s chief fire officer Andrew Brodie.

The managing director will help control a cost-cutting plan to combine back office workers in departments including Human Resources, IT, and finance.

Enable North Yorkshire, represents the plan which also hopes to improve the level of efficiency for the operations of both services.

The management role is also expected to attain responsibility for driving performance, and develop future corporate strategies.

The £105,000 to £115,000 salaried role has been described as ‘pivotal’ in the plan.

In January, PCC Mulligan said Enable North Yorkshire was not a ‘merger’ of police and fire services.

PCC Mulligan, who was elected in 2012 and re-elected 2016, said: “As I’ve said many times, the financial situation for both organisations is very challenging.

“We have to take every opportunity we can to improve efficiency in the 'back-office', so we can invest in the frontline services that keep people safe.

“I want to be absolutely clear that Enable North Yorkshire is a genuine public service collaboration – it is not a merger, it is not a take-over of one service by another, and it is not a separate company.

“North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service have different jobs to do, they are separate organisations, and that will not change.

“Staff who currently work in the police will continue to be employed by the police, and the staff who work in the fire service will continue to be employed by the fire service.”

She said savings from the policing budget would go back into the force, and savings from the fire budget would go to the fire service.