The leader of Ashfield District Council fears "lives will be lost" if the area's fire station is not fully re-opened, as a consultation on doing so closes. Ashfield Fire Station lost its full-time crew in 2018 and since that time, it has been operating from 8am until 6pm with 12 full-time firefighters, then relying on on-call firefighters outside of that timeframe.
Despite praising the "excellent" work of on-call firefighters, Jason Zadrozny says they are hampered by geography. But returning to full-time operation is now one of the recommendations in a consultation on a re-structuring of Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service's operations, which closes on December 23.
The service at the time of the 2018 arrangements said the alternative would have been redundancies or station closures, but it now says that it could invest £660,000 in returning Ashfield to a full-time station. This sum of money is the amount that the service says would be saved by removing the night-time shift from West Bridgford instead.
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The West Bridgford move has provoked controversy, with figures including Rushcliffe MP Ruth Edwards expressing opposition. But speaking about the importance of Ashfield's station, district council leader Jason Zadrozny said: "I live on the same road as the fire station and it's very strategically placed, it's on the A38 so it covers the motorway corridor.
"All road traffic accidents and things like that, Ashfield is the primary station. It covers right up to Hardwick Hall and then right down into the rurals of Selston so already, if you've got a fire and you're at one of those ends, it's 10 minutes for a fire engine to get to you.
"So these arrangements have really put lives at risk and people have noticed that because they read in the press more often about fire deaths. It's 8-6 full-time and from 6-8 it's reserve firefighters.
"But 6pm is when most people get home, put the chip pan on and then the dog starts barking. That's also the busiest point for traffic and collisions so that 6-8 slot is really busy, but that's when we're reliant on on-call firefighters.
"It's an absolute no-brainer that it's back to full-time. I genuinely think this will continue to cost lives if we don't undo it."
Ruth Edwards has questioned whether the choice needs to be made between Ashfield and West Bridgford, and said there are "serious questions" about the fire service having to make such cuts. The service says it has seen budget reductions of nearly £10 million since 2010 and that financial planning in February predicted a budget deficit of around £2.1 million for the next financial year, which starts in April 2023.
Alongside the West Bridgford plans, the service is also planning to remove a fire engine from the London Road and Stockhill stations. In its recently unveiled initial plans for the funding of local authorities over the next two years, the Government said that current proposals would see Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service being able to raise its precept by £5 if required.
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