Community safety is “a secondary consideration” in Fire Service cuts says MSP
A Mid Scotland and Fife MSP has said that “community safety is a secondary consideration to budget savings” as a document released by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service shows the extent of budget cuts the service plans to make over the coming years.
In a paper sent to the MSP this week the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it is cutting £11.07 million this year followed by a further £11.3 million in 2024- 2025; £7.3 million in 2025-2026 and £6.9 million in 2026-2027.
It also details how it expects to provide fire cover at Dunfermline, Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy and Methil once fire appliances and staff have been withdrawn as part of the first year of service reductions.
Mr Rowley said:
“The Scottish Fire and Rescue service has made it clear that this is the first of a series of year on year budget and that jobs losses will be central to their financial strategy going forward. Fife has already been disproportionately affected with appliances being withdrawn at 3 stations. And yet, Fire Chiefs are trying to tell us this will not affect community safety. This cannot be true. How is it possible to maintain the same level of fire cover with fewer fire engines and fewer firefighters. I can only come to the conclusion that fire safety is a secondary consideration to budget savings.
“The Scottish Government must come forward with more funding to prevent the decimation of this essential public service.”
Ends
The document Operation changes 2023-2024 is attached and the email that came with it below:
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service – Operational Changes 2023-2024
Dear Alex Rowley,
You may already be aware that we are implementing a series of operational changes across the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service from next month.
Following a detailed and thorough assessment of our data, this includes:
• The temporary withdrawal of 10 2nd or 3rd wholetime appliances;
• A reduction in the number of High Reach Appliances from 26 to 16; and
• Moving to dual crewing for both fire and water rescue at Polmadie Community Fire Station (Glasgow).
We appreciate that concerns have been raised regarding the changes and we have endeavoured to meet with as many elected members as possible over recent weeks.
As outlined previously, we also want to provide you with further information and can now share an information pack available via our website.
This sets out the impact of the changes and the data which has underpinned our decision making.
The analysis and modelling we have undertaken has been a complex process and we have spent time collating this to present in a more accessible format ahead of implementation.
Clearly like all public services, we are operating in a challenging financial period and require to save at least £36 million across the next four years.
As a service we have a legal obligation to deliver a balanced budget and must achieve these savings. The temporary withdrawal of these 2nd or 3rd wholetime appliances is necessary to help us to meet our immediate financial challenges within this timeframe.
We have looked in detail at historic station demand and response times and run a series of tests to identify what changes will be least impactful.
However, I should also add that not all decisions are financially driven. In addition to addressing our financial challenges, we also must modernise as a service to ensure we are best placed to meet the changing risk and demand we face across Scotland.
The change to our provision of High Reach Appliances, for example, has been planned for a long time and is aligned to our ten-year Operational Strategy 2022-2032.
Please be assured that we will continually monitor the impact of these changes to ensure we continue to deliver a robust emergency response for our communities.
In addition, any permanent changes to our community fire stations would only be made following full engagement and consultation with all stakeholders.
I hope that you will find this additional information helpful.
However, if you have any concerns or questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch via SFRS.Pqinfo@firescotland.gov.uk and we would be happy to arrange to meet at a time of your convenience.
Yours sincerely,
Assistant Chief Officer David Farries
Director of Service Delivery
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
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