Town forum hears case for and against fire station cuts
Thursday, 20th January 2011.
The case for and against proposed changes at Haverhill Fire Station were aired to town representatives at a meeting of Haverhill Partnership this morning.
The partnership heard from Andy Message, a Haverhill branch official of the Fire Brigades Union, and from Pat Dacey, the district manager for the St Edmundsbury fire stations, about the proposed change from seven-day working to five-day working for full-time fire crews in the town.
Under the proposals Haverhill Fire Station would be manned only by on-call firefighters (formerly called 'retained') at weekends.
Currently the station has a full time crew from 7.45am to 6pm seven days a week, with on-call crews covering evenings and night-time.
Under the new proposals it would only have a full-time crew 8.30am to 6pm Monday to Friday.
Mr Message told members he was certain the changes would result in a loss of life at some stage. He claimed it would take six minutes longer for on-call firefighters to answer a call and the delay could be crucial at a road accident.
He said the changes would also result in automatic fire alarms not being attended until someone at a premises had established the cause of the alarm.
He also claimed there would be less proactive work on safety and fire reduction, and no availability of the fire service to attend fetes and fairs, to which they receive some 30 invitations during the summer.
Mr Dacey said the average turnout time for on-call crews in Suffolk was three minutes, so that would be the delay.
"Haverhill is a low-activity station," he said, "with just 355 calls a year. There are retained stations in the county answering 100 calls a year more than that.
"It takes 45 calls a year at weekends, of which nine are dealt with by an officer. That leaves 36 call-outs - less than one a week."
Haverhill was never the only crew attending a serious road accident, most of which happened outside 30mph limits, so crews converged from other towns.
He said Suffolk Fire Service was the most cost-effective in the country. Because it was so lean, there was nowhere else to cut except on the front line, which meant the requirements of the Government's spending review were 'disproportionate' in Suffolk.
But the chief fire officer had to be able to manage this forced change at its own rate and in the way he thought best to reduce risk.
The change would mean the loss of four full time posts at Haverhill over four years, but the Government had indicated that, in the case of the fire service, the cuts could be back-loaded into years three and four.
Members were concerned about community interaction and pro-activity being lost, but Mr Dacey said it would remain as now because prevention was better than cure.
"But the fire service in Suffolk has to save £1.2million over four years and something has to change. Eighty per cent of our budget is spent on salaries, so posts will have to be affected."
Public consultation on the changes begins in February and Haverhill firemen will be out and about in the town talking to people on Saturday, March 12.
The partnership heard from Andy Message, a Haverhill branch official of the Fire Brigades Union, and from Pat Dacey, the district manager for the St Edmundsbury fire stations, about the proposed change from seven-day working to five-day working for full-time fire crews in the town.
Under the proposals Haverhill Fire Station would be manned only by on-call firefighters (formerly called 'retained') at weekends.
Currently the station has a full time crew from 7.45am to 6pm seven days a week, with on-call crews covering evenings and night-time.
Under the new proposals it would only have a full-time crew 8.30am to 6pm Monday to Friday.
Mr Message told members he was certain the changes would result in a loss of life at some stage. He claimed it would take six minutes longer for on-call firefighters to answer a call and the delay could be crucial at a road accident.
He said the changes would also result in automatic fire alarms not being attended until someone at a premises had established the cause of the alarm.
He also claimed there would be less proactive work on safety and fire reduction, and no availability of the fire service to attend fetes and fairs, to which they receive some 30 invitations during the summer.
Mr Dacey said the average turnout time for on-call crews in Suffolk was three minutes, so that would be the delay.
"Haverhill is a low-activity station," he said, "with just 355 calls a year. There are retained stations in the county answering 100 calls a year more than that.
"It takes 45 calls a year at weekends, of which nine are dealt with by an officer. That leaves 36 call-outs - less than one a week."
Haverhill was never the only crew attending a serious road accident, most of which happened outside 30mph limits, so crews converged from other towns.
He said Suffolk Fire Service was the most cost-effective in the country. Because it was so lean, there was nowhere else to cut except on the front line, which meant the requirements of the Government's spending review were 'disproportionate' in Suffolk.
But the chief fire officer had to be able to manage this forced change at its own rate and in the way he thought best to reduce risk.
The change would mean the loss of four full time posts at Haverhill over four years, but the Government had indicated that, in the case of the fire service, the cuts could be back-loaded into years three and four.
Members were concerned about community interaction and pro-activity being lost, but Mr Dacey said it would remain as now because prevention was better than cure.
"But the fire service in Suffolk has to save £1.2million over four years and something has to change. Eighty per cent of our budget is spent on salaries, so posts will have to be affected."
Public consultation on the changes begins in February and Haverhill firemen will be out and about in the town talking to people on Saturday, March 12.
Comment on this story
[board listing] [login] [register]
You must be logged in to post messages. (login now)