Merseyside Lives At Risk As Council Cuts Fire Services Budget

At least 150 fire service jobs will be lost in Merseyside following a £10m government funding cut, and it could get worse with further budget cuts and job losses in the Fire and Rescue Services in the county.

But the threat to lives does not stop there. Under the budget proposals, the cuts will see £7m stripped from the service’s prevention arm – such as fire safety awareness and advocacy work – leading to at least 57 job losses from a pool of around 300 staff.

This means that visits to residential areas by Fire Brigade personnel, providing safety advice and smoke alarms to elderly people, often living alone and young mothers, again often living alone and in low incomes; will cease to be made.

Sadly, as a result many fear additional injuries and deaths as a result of previously prevented fires in people’s homes.
Local media are reporting that ninety firefighter posts will be lost and at least 57 support roles put at risk of compulsory redundancy under budget proposals agreed yesterday.

The Liverpool Echo reported that ten closure-threatened stations are likely to be spared but the number of fire engines spread across the county will fall – causing a 2½-minute rise in the time it takes for a second engine to reach an emergency.

Chief Fire Officer Dan Stephens admitted the £10m cull in funding was “as good as could have been expected”. The service, which dealt with a £9.5m deficit imposed in 2011, feared a worst-case scenario of £17m.

Mr Stephens is quoted in the news article as saying:

“I would rather be in a position where we had to make no cuts. But it is a simple fact that we will have to lose people.
You can’t take £19.5m from a budget of £70m and expect that things will stay the same.”

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Source: Liverpool Echo / Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services

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