Ashfield Fire Station recommended to lose 'full-time' evening firefighters

The station is currently open 24 hours a day and has 26 firefighters.

After a consultation, the Fire Authority is recommending a reduction to 12 full-time firefighters working during the day, from 8 am to 6 pm.

An official decision will be made on Friday, February, 16.

This means that there will be no firefighters based the station at night, relying instead on ‘on-call’ firefighters.

In the agenda for the meeting on Friday, February, 16, it states in recommendations that the authority 'approve the implementation of the mixed crewing model at both Ashfield and Retford fire stations'.

Councillor Jason Zadrozny, Ashfield Independent Leader and Member of Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Authority has slammed the decision.

Councillor Zadrozny said: "I am appalled that fire bosses have ignored the plea of over 2500 local residents.

"I said at the beginning of this process that if these proposals go ahead lives will be lost.

"I stick to that - this decision is short-sighted, ill judged and quite simply beggars belief.

"I am not satisfied that the Fire Authority have done enough to identify other cost savings including office staff, communications staff nor have they looked at their property portfolio in order to save money.

"Instead, they are cutting onsite firefighters and quite frankly this is a disaster for our local area.

"Ashfield was the busiest station consulted on with over 1100 call outs in the last year alone. This doesn't make any sense."

The Fire Authority want to introduced 'mixed crewing' at Ashfield and Retford Fire Stations in a bid to save £500,000 a year.

The decision is set to be rubber-stamped at a meeting of the Fire Authority on Friday, 16th February.

Councillor Zadrozny has said he will vote against the proposals.

He said: "Residents have my assurance that I will do everything within my power to keep these vital, life saving services in Ashfield.

"These proposals will add vital minutes on to any Fire Service response times. This is the difference between life and death.

"I appreciate that times are tough and money is short. It is a question of priorities though and when you think of the vast area that Ashfield Fire Station covers including Ashfield, Kirkby, parts of Mansfield, Selston and its proximity to the A38 and M1 - this is lunacy."

A spokesman from Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue said: “The results of the consultation, that was undertaken from September to December last year, will be presented at next Friday’s Fire Authority meeting, including all submissions and petitions made for and against the proposals, for consideration. A decision will then be made by the Fire Authority on whether or not to approve the proposed changes.

“The recommendations are intended to address a number of issues for the Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, namely the 40per cent reduction in demand on operational resources over a sustained period of time; the difficulty in recruiting retained firefighters to provide day-time cover; the changing demand between day and night-time activity; the need to support firefighters working to age 60; and a reduction in funding to the year 2020.

“It is important to note that Mixed Crewing is a crewing system that has been used by Fire and Rescue Services around the UK for many years. In addition, more than half of our appliances are already crewed by retained staff, and there is no evidence to underpin the perception that response times or capability of crews is an issue in those areas.

“It is accepted that changing an appliance from wholetime to one that is retained crewed will increase attendance times by an average of five minutes, however this is for a small number of incidents, and will only affect one of the appliances attending. For context, at least two appliances are mobilised to property fires, and at least three are sent if there is a life risk. There is also a perception that appliances are located at stations waiting to be called out, and will only respond in their local area. This is not the case as Control Room procedures ensure that the most appropriate and quickest appliance is mobilised, even if that means it is provided from another authority.

“As far back as 2010, we reviewed where and how we used our staff and equipment to meet the changing economic climate, whilst maintaining a professional, effective and value-for-money emergency response. As a result, over the last seven years we have reduced our spending by £13 million, by employing robust procurement processes, significantly reducing running costs and reducing department budgets, amongst many other initiatives. This work continues. In 2017 we also initiated a Joint Estates Strategy, with Nottinghamshire Police and East Midlands Ambulance Service, which will help direct future decision-making around our stations and other Service premises.

“Our priority has been, and will always be, the safety or our communities.”