Fire engines risk breaking down due to repair backlog
FIRE engines risk breaking down on emergency calls as the service faces a £400million backlog in vital repairs.
A damning report yesterday showed that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) inherited an ‘insurmountable’ funding black hole following centralisation.
Politicians described the situation as a ‘national scandal’ and said lives would be put at risk as the brigade is expected to have to cut more staff.
Spending watchdogs warned that ‘difficult decisions’ over staffing and resources would have to be made in a bid to maintain the current state of vehicles, stations and key equipment.
They claimed failing to invest would ‘increase significantly’ the risk of ‘asset failures, such as vehicle breakdowns’.
And union bosses attacked the SNP’s merger of fire services, saying ‘firefighters and the people of Scotland have been let down’.
Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘The SNP Government has allowed a maintenance backlog of £400million to build up and that’s entirely inexcusable.
‘If equipment and vehicles aren’t properly maintained, that will have implications for staff and public safety. We need serious action from ministers to address these problems.’
Audit Scotland said the SFRS inherited a funding backlog of £389million and warned this could rise to £406million over the next decade.
Its report warns that to ‘bring its property, vehicles and other assets up to a minimum satisfactory condition and maintain them over the next ten years’ the SFRS must invest an average of £80.4million a year over and above the backlog.
Audit Scotland said it was ‘imperative’ the service reviewed and reshaped its capital assets, which could mean ‘closing, moving, sharing or changing the use of some properties as well as considering the range and deployment of its vehicles’.
It also raised the prospect of cutting jobs, and further ‘part- nership’ working with Police Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service.
Auditor General Caroline Gardner said the SFRS had been working towards an ambitious vision and urged chiefs to ‘press ahead with change’.
The report was published as the Fire Brigades Union hit out at the centralisation of forces in Scotland. In a submission to Holyrood’s justice committee union bosses said that they had initially been supportive of plans for a centralised fire service.
But they added: ‘We feel that firefighters and the people of Scotland have been let down.’
Scottish Labour justice spokesman Daniel Johnson said: ‘The fact that the situation is so bad that fire engines may not even be able to run is a national scandal that could put lives at risk.’
Minister for Community Safety Annabelle Ewing said: ‘The SFRS inherited a substantial capital backlog from the eight legacy services and the Scottish Government continues to work closely with the service to identify and provide the capital funding it needs for buildings, fleet and equipment.’
Alasdair Hay, chief officer of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, said: ‘We recognise the areas for improvement highlighted in the report.
‘Each of these are being prioritised and we are confident we will address the recommendations set out by Audit Scotland.’
‘Firefighters have been let down’