Union blasts Newbury fire crew cuts
Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service agreed £1.4m front line service cuts last night (Thursday)
THE FIRE Brigades Union (FBU) has blasted Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service's decision to axe more than a quarter of firefighters at Newbury fire station and accused the authority of gambling with people's lives.
Amid £1.4m of cuts to the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) front line services, agreed by the fire authority at a meeting last night (Thursday), 12 of the 40 firefighter posts based at the Newbury station will disappear over the next four years.
The Berkshire union has accused the authority of putting people's lives at risk by making the frontline thinner whilst fattening the back office.
Union spokesman Maurice Whyte called it a sad day for tax-payers: “These budget cuts will expose Berkshire residents to increased risk and delayed responses to emergencies.
“To save pennies, the fire authority is gambling with peoples live's and property.
“It is sickening to think that £2.8m is being put into reserves while £1.4m is being cut to the detriment of public and firefighter safety.”
At present, Newbury fire station can, under certain circumstances, deploy two crews at the same time, but after the cuts, there will only be enough firefighters available to deploy one crew at a time.
Deputy chief of Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Olaf Baars said: “I am very pleased that members have adopted, what under the circumstances is a very positive budget.”
Mr Baars also said that the cuts would not lead to redundancies. He told Newbury Today earlier this week that job losses would be dealt with through natural wastage.
Two of the West Berkshire Council representatives on the fire authority committee justified their decision after the meeting.
Councillor Paul Bryant (Con, Speen) denied that he saw it as a cut in service: “I think we are returning the same level of service, I wouldn't agree any reduction of service. What we are doing is we are asking crews to do more than one thing, asking them to use more than one sort of vehicle.”
While councillor Jeff Brooks (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) said: “With the financial pressures that we have, we have to take some tough decisions, and this is one we have to make because there are worse outcomes available.”
During vice-chairman of the meeting, Bracknell Forest councillor Colin Dudley disputed the distinction between front and back office staff, saying: “There seems to be a misconception that a fire service can run with just firefighters and appliances, but the back office is an integral part of any organisation.
Amongst the other cuts that were agreed at the meeting was a reduction of the number of firefighters at Windsor, a reduced attendance to automatic fire alarms, a 27 per cent reduction in the number of operational and specialist officers across the force and a the closure of Cookham fire station.
