Fire station closures will 'deplete Wiltshire's civil defence capability'
Over six thousand people have responded to a consultation on the closures
The closure of eight fire stations in Wiltshire and Dorset will deplete the county’s civil defence capability in future cases of terrorist atrocities.
That’s the view of a Wiltshire Councillor who saw a firefighter neighbour in a hazmat suit during the Novichok attack on Salisbury in 2018.
Cllr Pauline Church (Wilton, Conservative) was presenting a motion to a full meeting of Wiltshire Council, urging opposition to a proposal by Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service to close eight fire stations – four in each county – on cost grounds
The final decision rests not with the service itself, but with the Fire and Rescue Authority, which is made up of 18 councillors from Wiltshire Council, Swindon Borough Council, Dorset Council, and Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council.
Cllr Church told the meeting: “The closure of four fire stations in Wiltshire is a direct cut to our emergency safety net.
She continued: “People have also voiced concerns about the impact of fire station closures on our civil defence capability.
“The fire service is specifically mandated to respond to structural fires, road traffic collisions, and other emergencies.
“In our case, this was Novichok, a nerve agent attack on Salisbury.
“It was alarming to see my next-door neighbour – an on-call firefighter – in a hazmat suit at the centre of an international terrorist incident.”
And she warned: “The world since then has not become a safer place.”
The motion received cross-party support on a range of issues.
The leader of the Liberal Democrat-led administration, Ian Thorn, said that in the case of a fire “every second and every minute matters.”
Conservative group leader Richard Clewer said: “The fire service has been put in this position because government has cut rurality funding.”
Reform group leader Ed Rimmer said: “When you think of some of the completely ridiculous things that central government does fund, it’s ridiculous that they would even consider cutting funding to something essential like this.
“Public safety is the absolute first priority of any government.”
And Ricky Rogers, the council’s sole Labour councillor, said fire station closures would be a betrayal of the promises made to the public when Dorset and Wiltshire fire services were combined in 2016 that “this merger would keep all of our stations open, manned, and retained.”
Paul Oatway (Pewsey Vale West, Conservative), who is the vice chairman of the fire authority, read a statement from the fire service: “We have been clear that there will be an impact on station closures on response times, particularly in rural areas where travel distances are greater.”
Other councillors spoke to share their personal experiences of fires and the bravery of firefighters, and to highlight the risks faced by Wiltshire residents on the roads, in their homes – especially those with thatched roofs – and in areas with open grassland where the climate crisis is making wildfires more likely.
The motion demanded that the leader of the council write to Dame Diana Johnson, Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire, requesting a review of the Revenue Support Grant to place the fire service on a sustainable financial footing.
It also asked that the leader write to Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service outlining Wiltshire Council’s opposition to the closure of Bradford-on-Avon, Mere, Ramsbury and Wilton Fire Stations.
The motion was supported by 87 councillors with three abstaining.
The fire stations facing closure in Wiltshire are at Bradford-on-Avon, Mere, Ramsbury, and Wilton.
A three-month public consultation closed on Friday, May 15. DWFRS confirmed that more than 6,000 residents of Wiltshire and Dorset had submitted responses.