As pressure mounts to halt eight fire station closures, attention is shifting from stark cuts to smaller, workable savings … and whether Whitehall can move quickly enough
The proposed closure of eight fire stations is beginning to look less like a simple yes-or-no decision and more like a race against time. Following a cross-party meeting on 21st April with Fire Minister Samantha Dixon, South West Wiltshire MP Dr Andrew Murrison struck a cautiously optimistic tone, saying he was ‘hopeful that we will see a positive outcome that will avoid the immediate danger – the threatened closure of fire stations’, while also calling for ‘a more rational and sustainable basis for fire and rescue service funding’.
North Dorset MP Simon Hoare is less willing to assume a reprieve. ‘I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re definitely not going to be closed,’ he says. What concerns him more is the narrowness of the consultation: ‘Let’s work on the presumption that 99% of respondents to the consultation say “do not do this” – and I can’t imagine anybody thinks increasing the risk to public health, life and safety by increasing response time is a good thing. What, then, is Plan B? It’s a very blunt consultation: “we need to save money: closing eight stations saves money, so this is what we’re consulting on” – rather than looking at a cocktail of options.’
That ‘cocktail’ is where Hoare believes the conversation now needs to move, given the relatively modest scale of the deficit. ‘It’s only £1.6 million, and they have reserves to cover it in the short term. That should be used to buy time.’
Bring back kettles
He points to practical savings recently raised with him by firefighters themselves. ‘Each station now has a plumbed-in hot water machine, which is on 24/7, and used for just a handful of cups of tea a week. They have to be professionally serviced, they use power – why not go back to kettles?’
Fleet costs are another example. ‘There is a fleet of vans used for non-emergency work like fire alarm checks. Firefighters have told me: “We don’t need them – we’ll use our own cars and claim mileage.” That would inevitably be cheaper than running, insuring and maintaining a fleet.’
These are, he accepts, ‘back of a cigarette packet’ ideas, but they point to a broader argument: ‘At this point the Fire Authority shouldn’t go to the minister and say: “what are you going to give us?” Instead, a far more productive route is to go and say: “this is what we need, and this is what we can do ourselves”.’
The bigger issue, he warns, is that closures are not a contained, localised issue. ‘If you live in Blandford, Shaftesbury or Gillingham, you might comfortably think your station is safe, so why should this worry you? But if those stations go, yours will then be called out more often, over a wider area. It impacts all of us.’
There are also knock-on effects not currently being considered – the increase in pressure on retained firefighters and, crucially, on the small businesses that employ them. ‘Most of our rural firefighters have a full-time job which allows them to attend shouts as necessary. Currently that might be once every two weeks … but how many bosses will be happy with you abandoning your job three or four times in a week? Or as a self-employed tradesman, how often can you leave a wall half-plastered or a kitchen with a flood before you start getting a reputation for being unreliable? If you’re asking more of fewer people, it’s not difficult to see that the ripple effects will be unsustainable.’
Time is running out
Simon Hoare assured Dorset Life that Samantha Dixon – possibly due to her years of experience as a local councillor – genuinely listened and understood the community concerns, and she is actively looking for solutions.
He feels that the deficit is clear and defined, and alternatives – however small – are beginning to surface.
‘But the consultation ends on the 15th May, and the meeting of the Fire Authority to determine what to do next is at the end of June,’ he says.
‘They are going to have to take a decision on the facts as they exist today, unless those facts have changed. So Whitehall has got between now and early June to say things have changed. That’s quite a tight time frame. I think if we are unsuccessful, and the closures go ahead in the absence of anything else being offered, it won’t be because of a lack of understanding. It won’t fall because of a lack of local campaigning. It won’t fall because of a readiness to understand from the government.
‘It will fall simply because of an inability to meet the timetable.’
On 20th April, 45 firefighters tackled a thatch property fire in Kingston, near Sturminster Newton. Pumping appliances from Sturminster Newton, Blandford, Sherborne, Shaftesbury, Bere Regis, Poole, Tisbury, Ferndown and Wincanton initially attended, with support vehicles from Gillingham, Ferndown, Poole, Bridport and Yeovil. Relief crews from Beaminster, Bridport, Christchurch, Westbourne, Warminster, Verwood, Charmouth and Hamworthy continued to extinguish the fire throughout the night. The incident was scaled back to four crews from Weymouth, Springbourne, Salisbury and Wilton at 4am.
by Laura Hitchcock
