Overnight fire station closure plan is approved
CONTENTIOUS plans to close a Tyneside fire station overnight will go ahead. Regional fire bosses have approved a downgrade of Wallsend Fire Station that will leave it unstaffed from 6pm to 8am.
The move has drawn major concern from local firefighters and politicians in North Tyneside, while more than 1,600 people signed a petition warning that the change could put lives at risk if response times are delayed.
Members of the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Authority were told on Monday morning that the changes were not about budget cuts, with service bosses pledging that no jobs will be lost from the Hadrian Road site.
Instead, there are plans to divert resources into increased rope and water rescue provision – particularly to deal with increasing numbers of suicide attempts on the region’s bridges.
Amid fears about a lack of overnight cover for the Wallsend area, the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service (TWFRS) has also pledged that they will have two engines based in North Tyneside at times when Wallsend Station is shut.
Asked by Newcastle councillor Ged Bell if the Wallsend overnight closure was being done to save money, chief fire officer Peter Heath insisted that was not the case.
He said: “The amount of money we get to run the service on your behalf is tight at best. It has improved in the last year, or rather it has got less worse.
“The proposals on Wallsend make sense from an effectiveness and efficiency point of view, and from a firefighter safety and community safety point of view.
“If I had more money, I am not sure it would change the proposal in front of you now.”
North Tyneside mayor Dame Norma Redfearn was among those opposing the Wallsend proposal, which is expected to go ahead from mid-June, saying her council believed it would “significantly impact on public safety”.
A letter from Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah also raised concerns about a “devastating effect upon fire and rescue provision for the area North of the Tyne and beyond”.
Ahead of Monday’s decision, the Fire Brigades Union had claimed that the plan was “based on a perceived demand and not the actual risk” and that there was a “clear risk in Wallsend during the times it is proposed the appliance will not be available”.
Mr Heath replied that this was “simply not factually correct”, insisting that the proposal was based on data.
A TWFRS report states that firefighters in Wallsend responded to “very low numbers” of the most serious blazes between 8pm and 8am, fewer than 1.5 per month.
The service claims that the change will increase its average response time across the region by just four seconds to five minutes and 44 seconds.
Newcastle Lib Dem councillor Tom Woodwark asked what capacity there was to reverse the changes if they prove to have a negative impact, to which Mr Heath replied: “There is no loss of staff anywhere, we are going to redistribute staff to better resource the risks that the people of Tyne and Wear are facing.
“[But] what is being done can be undone because we are not cutting staff, though we would have to rethink our water and rope rescue at that point.”
He added: “I would never put the citizens of Tyne and Wear at risk by putting forward reckless proposals.”
FBU branch secretary Wayne Anderson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the meeting that his union welcomed the investment in boat and rope rescue provision, but was “very disappointed that it has come at the cost to Wallsend” – with members still holding worries about the level of risk in the town.
Sunderland councillor Phil Tye, who chairs the fire authority, said he was reassured that the people of Wallsend and surrounding areas would remain safe.
He told The Journal: “I think with the assurance we have been given around putting an extra appliance in the locality of that station, I am absolutely confident.
“The decision we had to make today was about the whole of Tyne and Wear.
“I live in Sunderland and I see the number of issues we have on Wearmouth Bridge and the number of times we are responding to that.
“You have to direct the resources to the risk that presents in front of you.”
Asked if any alternatives had been considered, Coun Tye responded: “No, it was up to the chief to come up with any alternative proposals and it was his professional view that there was no option other than this.”
I would never put the citizens of Tyne andWear at risk by putting forward reckless proposals. Chief fire officer Peter Heath