Potential Fire Station closures.

[Phill]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-17046720

"The Fire Brigades Union is urging the Highlands and Islands Fire Board not to allow the chief fire officer to close small fire stations across the area.
Ahead of a special board meeting on Friday, Chief Fire Officer Trevor Johnson has asked for permission to "suspend" operations of some stations."

Flagging this one up for anyone who hasn't seen this.
I don't know if any unofficial 'plans' have been mooted for Caithness or how this could possibly affect cover up here.
My guess is that if they / he was hoping to quietly close some small stations rather than keep the firefighters trained up.

Any retained FF's know anything??

[pat]

I believe the bosses of Fire Service tried to close a few of the very small fire stations around the area a few years ago - the firefighters and the communities fought very hard to retain these stations and they did win.

Most of the problem will be cost of training the individuals and maintaining the equipment but what cost do they put on life?

Whilst the fight was on going there were a few incidents in the area which gave a lot more weight to the fight and the small stations were kept.

[Nick Noble]

The primary factor that should inform retention (or closure) of any fire station is public safety. If fire fighters need more training then that should be provided. Many of the small rural fire stations in the Highlands operating with retained fire fighters do not see as much "real" action as might be ideal, and for that we must all be thankful. If that means extra training is required in those stations so be it.

Tongue, Bettyhill, Durness, Kinlochbervie, Dunbeath, and all the other 12 retained personnel stations in Caithness and Sutherland, along with those at Wick and Thurso with their complement of 20 retained firefighters provide a vital service. We cannot and must not allow anyone to simply "suspend" operations because insufficient resources have been invested in keeping training up to date and relevant.

I fear that much of the impetus behind this move is preparations for the new SFRS and it's mandated role in achieving "Best Value" as detailed in the bill published on the Scottish Parliament web site http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S4_Bills/Police%20and%20Fire%20Reform%20(Scotland)%20Bill/Bill_as_introduced.pdf:


39A
Best value
(1) It is the duty of SFRS to make arrangements which secure best value.
(2) Best value is continuous improvement in the carrying out of SFRS’s functions.
(3)In securing best value, SFRS must maintain an appropriate balance among—
(a) the quality of its carrying out of its functions,
(b) the cost to SFRS of that carrying out of its functions,
(c) the cost to persons of any service provided by SFRS for them on a
wholly or partly rechargeable basis.

(4)In maintaining that balance, SFRS must have regard to—
(a) efficiency,
(b) effectiveness,
(c) economy, and
(d) the need to meet the equal opportunity requirements.
(5) SFRS must carry out its duties under this section in a way which contributes to
the achievement of sustainable development.
(6) In measuring the improvement of the carrying out of SFRS’s functions for the
purposes of this section, regard is to be had to the extent to which the outcomes
of the carrying out of the functions have improved.
(7) In this section, “equal opportunity requirements” has the same meaning as in
Section L2 of Part 2 of Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act 1998 (c.46).

Now if somewhere within paragraph (4) was included:

(e)Public Safety

it would lessen my concerns, but as things stand that does not appear to be a concern of those planning this change in one of our most important public services.

[Phill]

Interesting stuff Nick.

Best Value & Public Safety in the same sentence....nah, yer 'avin a giraffe!

Perth today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-17073341


I think we all know that 'suspend' means close. If the stations have inadequate training and lack of resources then surely its about providing that training & equipment.

Edit:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-17079161

[Nick Noble]

well some good news on this I think, they are going to train the firefighters :)

http://www.highland.gov.uk/yourcouncil/news/newsreleases/2012/February/2012-02-24-04.htm