Stroud News
Union boss blasts cuts to county's fire service
12:47pm Monday 6th February 2012
CUTS to fire services in Gloucestershire will have a ‘significant impact’ on frontline operations, resulting in job losses and endangering members of the public, one union boss has warned.
Around one in eight posts are being axed under a new three-year plan for the service, which was approved by Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) last week.
Tim McFarlane, a member of the Fire Brigades Union who represents the south west region, said the loss of 24 out of 206 positions would put public safety at risk.
He also said the decision by the authority not to fill current vacancies in Gloucestershire’s fire service amounted to cuts by stealth.
"Both the public and the emergency services were promised that there would be no cuts to the frontline but now we are seeing posts that are vital to the safety of the public cut.
"You do not get more frontline than that. These cuts will have a significant impact and they will leave the people of Gloucestershire less safe than they were before," he said.
But Will Windsor-Clive, cabinet member for communities, said: "I want to be clear that these proposals do not mean that there will be any firefighter redundancies.
"While there will be a reduction in the overall headcount, we have already given an undertaking that this will be achieved by not filling vacant posts, not by compulsory redundancy."
Mr McFarlane, however, said the cuts could leave Gloucestershire’s fire service unable to deploy high reach fire engines because of a lack of specially trained firefighters.
"We all understand the economic situation but frontline fire crews are paying the price for a crisis they did not cause and it will be the public who suffer," he added.
Jon Hall, Chief Fire Officer, said the new three-year plan was about making necessary changes and improvements to the service.
"This doesn’t mean we will be removing any specialist equipment or cutting firefighters, it just means the equipment would be crewed in a different way," he said.
"We are also making substantial investments in four new fire stations so more people will get their fire engine quicker in future."