Staffordshire firefighters go in £1m cuts

The controversial cuts impacting on Cannock, Rugeley, Stone, Lichfield and Burton stations were approved at a meeting of Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Authority yesterday.

More radical proposals to axe emergency cover from 33 stations to 15 and 42 pumps to 15 were ruled out by fire chiefs at the meeting, however.

This would have saved more than £4m a year but seen 440 retained firefighters axed at a cost of up to £1m in redundancies.

Instead, the authority approved cuts which will see eight full-time posts axed from Cannock, resulting in £302,000 savings along with the removal of seven retained positions at Rugeley to claw back £87,500.

Seven retained roles are being scrapped from Stone to save £77,000 and another seven, along with a watch manager and whole time firefighter being axed at Lichfield to recover £171,000.

This is alongside the removal of 12 full-time positions in Burton to save £452,000. The fire service says all the positions which will be axed are currently vacant.

But Rich Williams, chairman of the Fire Brigades Union in Staffordshire, said: "We are very disappointed.

"What they have done is reduce a whole time crew by at least 20 people and they have taken 21 retained firefighters out of the establishment. Only time will tell what is going to happen there.

"All they do is talk about money but they have made these decisions with £11m in reserves."

"It is like they are saving for a rainy day but it is pretty much raining now.

"We will be consulting with members on our current position, there will be some very unhappy people."

The decision by bosses will also see an engine removed from each of Cannock, Rugeley, Stone and Burton and replace the appliance in Lichfield with a smaller one, saving £1.1m this year.

Concerns remain that further reductions could be made at other stations including Stafford in order to make an additional £600,000 savings which are needed.

The future of the station along those in Kidsgrove, Burslem and Tamworth remain unclear until the results of ongoing trials which are reviewing how the fire service tackles emergencies.

Results and recommendations from the project are set to be presented by the end of the year.

Chief fire officer Peter Dartford said: "In last six years demand for the fire service has reduced by a third.

"The recommendations involve reducing our response capability by less than ten per cent and maintain all of our current first appliances.

"I believe they are appropriate, proportionate and actually quite cautious."