Bill Cash calls for second fire engine in Stone to be saved

Stone MP Bill Cash has called for the second fire engine at the town’s community fire station to be saved, just days before the fire service publish its recommendations on its future.

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service will be setting out its recommendation for Stone’s second fire engine on Monday (6th July)

The service published its proposals for the whole county in March and carried out an extensive consultation. Its proposals for Stone’s new community fire station were:

1. Remove the second appliance and maintain crewing at a level which would support the Command Support Vehicle (CSV)

2. Reduce the number of operational staff at Stone and remove the second appliance (this would mean the station’s remaining appliance could not be used at the same time as the command support vehicle)

More detailed information is HERE. Those opposed to removing the second fire engine – and over 2,000 signatures were collected in a petition – say that it would put lives at risk.

The fire service will be publishing its final recommendations on Monday and – unless there has been a huge turnaround in its thinking – will recommend the removal of Stone’s second fire engine. The final recommendations will then go to the Fire Authority for approval on Monday 13th July.

Stone MP Sir Bill Cash has written to the chief executive of Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service opposing the proposals to remove the second appliance at Stone station combined with reducing the number of operational staff at Stone, equating to seven posts from the current level (although these seven posts are all currently vacant at the station as vacancies have not been filled).

Cash has asked the service to set out why they will be recommending this proposal – he had opposed this option in the consultation and on an ongoing basis. He has explained his view and of the local community in Stone prior to the decision meeting of 13th July, when the Fire Authority meeting takes place at Staffordshire Fire HQ.

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He issued a statement on Thursday evening (2nd July).

The local community in Stone are totally against it,” he said, “and have collected nearly 2,000 signatures from the public in and around Stone who oppose and object strongly to the proposals. I am also informed the consultation uses historical data which has indeed seen the calls decrease over the years but this year the service are currently seeing an increase in calls of approximately 25%.

“I applaud our firefighters in Stone and it is clear to my constituents that the second fire engine provides an additional resource not only to Stone but the whole of the county – and Stone can give the cover that is required. In my constituency, Stone station firefighters have the capacity to give good appliance availability.”

Today (3rd July), the fire service responded to Cash’s statement.

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service deputy chief executive Becci Bryant said: “We strongly refute the claims made by Mr Cash with regards to the Service seeing a 25 per cent increase in calls and would question where he has taken this figure from. The fact is that during the three-month period between April and June this year, compared to the same period last year, there has been a 4.71 per cent increase in the number of calls – less than one fifth of the figure quoted by Mr Cash. The likely reason for this slight increase is due to the hot weather we had this Easter holiday when compared to last year.

“The Community Safety Options proposals have been drawn up following in-depth analysis of the number and type of incidents we are dealing with by area and across the county as a whole. The recommendations will be published on Monday, July 6.

“We received approximately 2,000 responses to the 12-week consultation, all of which have been carefully considered and form a basis of the proposals. The Fire and Rescue Authority will discuss the recommendations at its meeting on July 13.”

Stone town and borough councillor Jill Hood said: “The fire service are proud to boast of the reduction of domestic fires due to their hard work in educating people about fire hazards and safe practice in the home. But have the powers that be taken into consideration risk factor? We are on the edge of the M6, where accidents are frequent. Jeremy Lefroy, MP for Stafford, quite rightly points out that we have major rail links in Stafford and Stone.

“The lack of support from Stone for other fire crews – especially Stafford during a major incident – would have disastrous results. The impact of the proposed cuts would result in loss of life and at present Stone supports Stafford on a regular basis. We need to keep the second fire engine in Stone.”

We’ll have more on this on Monday when the fire service publish their recommendations.