Chief Fire Officer urges public to have say in final week of fire station closure consultation
Eight Dorset and Wiltshire on-call fire stations are up for closure to bridge a funding gap
The Chief Fire Officer (CFO) at Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service is urging everyone to have their say on proposals to close eight on-call fire stations across the region.
Four on-call stations in Dorset - Charmouth, Cranbourne, Hamworthy and Maiden Newton - and four in Wiltshire - Bradford on Avon, Mere, Wilton and Ramsbury - are all up for closure following data analysis by the Fire Service, leading to a public consultation.
The key issue is funding - with the Service facing a 19.5% reduction in funding over the next three years due to successive Governments cutting revenue streams, without the opportunity to increase the amount we pay towards the Service through taxes by more than the statutory amount.
CFO Andy Cole said there has already been over 4,500 responses so far.
He told Greatest Hits Radio: "It's really, really important that we hear from as many residents and visitors to Dorset and Wiltshire as possible to get their views and to ensure that we've not missed anything as part of the data analysis that we've undertaken that we need to be aware of, that the Fire Authority need to be aware of when they're making that decision."
He called the information from the public "valuable" and the independent company running the consultation will then generate a report which will be handed to the Fire and Rescue Authority (FRA) at their meeting in June, where the final decision will be made.
Chief thanks public for engagement
25 public meetings have been held since the consultation opened in February, with Chief Officer Cole saying the public had engaged well with those opportunities.
"The turnout has been fantastic," he said. "So I'm immensely grateful to all of the public that have gone to the effort of coming and attending one of these meetings to get the information and the data that we've been sharing with them."
He added that people who had written to their MP's to raise awareness of the issue had helped generate "more valuable conversations" with central Government for the CFO about the funding issues.
CFO Cole, who has been a firefighter for 20 years and started out as an on-call employee, reiterated that he does not want to close fire stations, because it will lead to increased risk.
Despite making over £15 million in savings, the funding cuts have left him little choice but to consider closures, something the Service had been raising concerns about for some time.
He praised the staff for conducting themselves in a highly professional manner in what he called a "really difficult and challenging time for them".
We can complete the online survey here.
The consultation closes at 5pm on Friday 15th May, with the FRA set to meet on 30th June and deliver their decision.