'Reckless' fire cut slammed

Published on 18th December 2008 in News

Town councillors turned the heat on a Humberside Fire chief after he tried to defend the fire cuts in Goole.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Richard Hannigan addressed a meeting of Goole Town Council's Policy and Resources Committee on Monday, hoping to convince councillors that the decision to downgrade Goole Fire Station was the best way forward.

But he came in for some heavy questioning following his address, particularly from left-wing firebrand Cllr Keith Moore.

He branded the fire service's decision to change staffing at Goole - from two full-time crews to one whole-time and one retained - as "reckless and irresponsible".

"I feel that (existing) firefighters are being treated shoddily," said Cllr Moore.

Committee chairman Pat O'Neil stopped Cllr Moore in his tracks when she felt his questions were becoming too political, but aired her own concerns about the changes to fire-service personnel.

"We all feel let down by the fire authority action they have taken," she said.

Cllr O'Neil said she was concerned that eventually redundancies would have to be made at Goole Fire Station.

But Mr Hannigan insisted there would be no redundancies or any reduction in numbers at the station.

"What we don't want to do is run the fire station down," he added.

Over the coming months prospective retained firefighters will undergo three months' training and will then be sent to shadow full-time firefighters to learn the ropes.

Mr Hannigan said that, to ensure the retained firefighters were ready for the demands of such a dangerous job, they would be sent to some of the region's busiest stations to learn, rather than to Goole.

He told councillors there had been 78 "expressions of interest" in the retained jobs and that 42 people had turned up to the two taster sessions held at Goole Fire Station.

Mr Hannigan said the new firefighters' contractual agreements would also be changed so that they could give the fire service "guaranteed periods of availability" and get to the fire station on time.

It was hoped they would start frontline duties by July, 2010 at which point some full-time staff would be re-deployed elsewhere in the region.

Mr Hannigan said changing from two full-time crews to one whole-time and one-part time crew would save the fire service £500,000.

Cllr Malcolm Boatman suggested the real reason the fire service was sending prospective retained staff to other stations was because of the animosity towards the plans shown by full-time firefighters at Goole Fire Station.

But Mr Hannigan said that, while it would be "disingenuous" to suggest that the full-time firefighters in Goole were happy with the plans, staff response to the new system had been "very good".

"The watch managers have been extremely co-operative in moving these things forward," he said. "The primary reason we want to use other stations is that they are busier."

Despite Mr Hannigan's attempts to reassure town councillors and residents about the new system, there are those who claim it will cost lives.

Brent Huntington, a former firefighter who lives in Goole, said a repeat of the terrible scenes in Llangollen, Wales - where retained firefighters arrived 14 minutes after the target time at a fire in which a pensioner died - could happen here.

He said: "Llangollen is exactly what will happen somewhere in our area for sure. It may not be in my lifetime but it will happen because of the cuts.

"This isn't scaremongoring - it is blatant fact."