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UNDER FIRE: Heywood Fire Station in Middleton Road
UNDER FIRE: Heywood Fire Station in Middleton Road

Town's fire service will lose an engine

Frank Wood
26/10/2005

HEYWOOD fire station is to lose one of its two engines for two nights a week.

Greater Manchester Fire Service chiefs insist there will be no risk to the public and the moves are all part of a masterplan to improve efficiency that will come into force from January.

But frontline firefighters at the Middleton Road station say they fear it could mark the start of sweeping changes in the fire service which will result in fewer stations and fewer crews.

Kevin Brown, of the Fire Brigades Union, claims it is a cost-cutting decision that will affect not only Heywood but the whole borough.

And he warned: "It is only a matter of time before there is a loss of life because of these plans."

FBU secretary Kevin Brown claimed that 'mothballing' a total of five frontline fire engines throughout the service after 6pm would lead to a 'roulette approach to emergency cover'.

He said: "The fact of the matter is, people die in their beds at night, not during the day. This approach will see different parts of the brigade area having reduced cover at night while other areas, such as Heywood, will give up a fire engine.

"The authority proposes to set a maximum time that the public should wait for a fire engine to arrive. But all firefighters know that almost every fire requires more than one engine to be sent as soon as a call for help is received. For example, two engines are always sent to dwellings."

Under the efficiency plan confirmed last week, one of the two fire fighting vehicles at Heywood will not be manned after 6pm on Mondays and Thursdays.

Rochdale station, which deals with some fires in Heywood under the fire service's complicated 'moving cover' system, will not be affected by the cuts.

Under that system, Heywood fire crews are often called in to deal with fires and serious accidents in Rochdale.

Station officer Mark Murphy, of Heywood fire station, said crews were awaiting the outcome of negotiation between the union and management.

But David Astley, head of Rochdale fire station, said the changes would in no way bring increased risk to the community.

He said due to the substantial pay award given to firefighters, the Government made it clear there would be efficiencies nationally.

He said: "There are enough engines at nearby stations to cover the losses and the only thing which might result from this is other stations being slightly busier. We will still stick to the 90 per cent target of one engine at any property fire in seven minutes and there will be no redundancies.

"There is only a certain amount of money in the public purse and, as has happened in the health service, the Government expects a public service to give good value for money."

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Most recent 2 of 2 user comments

   I was born in Heywood then moved to Stockport in 1968. My younger son is a Firefighter with GMFS and we are experiencing the same cuts in this area of Greater Manchester. The whole thing is definitely cost cutting, we as citizens need assuring that our safety will be paramount but how can the "top brass" of GMFS issue this assurance. They can't!. They have budgets to work to and the only way they can keep to Government budgets is to cut manpower, however much they deny it.
Mrs Gillian Harrison, Stockport, Cheshire
6/11/2005 at 00:01
   Dave Astley,head of Rochdale Fire Station says that the only thing that might result from these changes is that neighbouring stations might be slightly bussier. Nonsense! People already die in Fires, they always will, and car crashes and many other incidents that fire engnes attend. Fortunantly many are saved because they get to the incident quickly. By removing pumps it doesnt take a genius to know that the risk to the community will increase, more people will die as a direct result of this action. Lets get one thing correct. These are not money saving cuts, the same amount of Firefighters will be on duty, around 20 firefighters across the county will move to other stations each night leaving behind mothballed fire engines, it is a real cock up. Neither is this anything to do with the firefighters pay rise as their are no cuts to personnel. Mr Astley and his fellow officers(of which there are too many) also had a pay rise, maybe savings could be made by axing some of these posts, once we have less pumps on the run surely we wont need as many 'managers'.
firefighter, sale
30/10/2005 at 17:52
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