He began his sixth year in the hot seat at its meeting today in Aylesbury.

Councillor Rowlands, who lives in Winslow, has been chairman of the authority that runs Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service since July 2004 and a member of the authority and its predecessors since 1993.

He said: "We are committed to keeping our communities safe from harm. We do this through a combination of the high quality response of our firefighters and a great deal of background work designed to prevent incidents from happening or to reduce their impact.

"You can count on us to respond to your 999 call for help in an emergency, and we are trying harder than ever to reduce the number of emergency incidents in the first place by expanding Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service's vital fire prevention and fire safety work.

"We are also committed to providing our workforce with the skills, equipment and training they need in today's modern fire and rescue service."

Councillor Rowlands is the immediate past Chairman of the South East Fire and Rescue Services Regional Management Board, which comprises representatives of the region's nine fire and rescue services and the nine local authorities responsible for running them.