We all want best for our Fire Service

IF you were to take Coun Higgns’s letter “Not surprised by backing the fire cuts” (Feedback, February 25) you’d believe I was some sort of Fire Service Grinch, cutting services with a heady go-as-you-please attitude.

Yet again, the Labour Party in Higgins’s letter are playing fast and loose with a narrative that suits them. I could point out the obvious that the reason for the Coalition was the financial devastation Labour left behind - “there is no money” - that far from the “end of boom and bust” the country had fallen into an economic hole. Labour beleves history only began in 2010. It didn’t.

The to and fro could last a lifetime, and for the Fire Service would be pointless.

What is clear - clear beyond all doubt - is that funding for the Service is broken. Council Tax is skewed for higher returns in wealthier properties, yet risk

does have a wider link to deprivation, and that the Governnment has skewed funding away from services such as Tyne and Wear.

The amendments I and my colleague voted against merely postpone the changes, they do not in themselves make any difference to the dreadful situation the Fire Service sees itself in.

It merely kicks those savings that will be needed down the road in the hope that the required monetary cavalry somehow comes over the horizon. The track record of Tory fire ministers to be that cavalry should not make anyone’s heart flutter in anticipation.

We all want Tyne and Wear Fire Service to be the best it can, and to receive funding to allow that to happen is everybody’s goal. But to plan your financial strategy on hope, where no hope has been seen .... Coun Higgins may bask in a bit of light banter, I however have no such luxury!

COUN TOM WOODWARK, Gosforth Ward, Newcastle City Council, Member Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Authority