The Chief Fire Officer and Chief Executive of Essex County Fire and Rescue Service has announced she will retire, after serving for three and a half years in the role.
Jo Turton said: “This has absolutely been one of the most difficult decisions of my career.
"But I am planning my retirement safe in the knowledge that ECFRS now has an outstanding leadership team able to build on the fantastic progress we have made.
“We have developed and recruited truly outstanding talent across the organisation, people that understand our service and where we have come from who share our determination to deliver further improvements, transforming ECFRS into an exemplar fire and rescue service across the UK and beyond.”
During her tenure, Jo Turton has been at the helm for fire service inspections which started in 2019.
She expects the final report will recognise the improvements made from 2019.
Inspectors said they found good areas of performance within some aspects of the fire service but ECFRS required to improve in each of the three areas of ‘effectiveness’, ‘efficiency’ and ‘looking after its people'.
At the time, HM Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services Zoë Billingham said the new leadership team at Essex County FRS had "inherited a very poor cultural legacy with unacceptable levels of bullying and pockets of toxic behaviours".
She said much commendable work had been done, but cultural transformation would take time.
Roger Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex (Image: PFCC)
Roger Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex, said Jo Turton had been a "significant contribution" to making Essex a safer place.
"Her energy, dedication and commitment has driven her work as she has reshaped the service, empowering significant positive cultural change.
"Over the past 12 months she has led ECFRS as it rose to the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, with that response praised by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services.
"Jo will leave a service that is stronger, more resilient and offers a better service to the public and has set the service on a track to continued improvement.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here