Fire protesters march in Sussex (From The Argus)
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Fire protesters march in Sussex
3:10pm Monday 23rd August 2010 in News By Ruth Lumley
Fire protesters march in Sussex
Protesters marched in the rain to campaign against the potential closure of a fire station.
Findon fire station, near Worthing, is just one of those under threat as fire services in West and East Sussex look to make 'efficiency savings' across the county.
Campaigners have accused West Sussex County Council of wasting taxpayers' money by building a £70,000 training tower at the fire station, in Horsham Road, which it is proposing to close.
On Saturday, about 300 people marched from Nepcote Green to the village fire station in Highbarn.
Comments(9)
sparky_2004
says...
3:53pm Mon 23 Aug 10
Titter ye not wrote:On roads that are often clogged with traffic and whose fire appliances are covering an increasingly larger area and number of households...but then I guess response times wouldn't be an issue to you until it was your house burning would it!
Worthing main Fire Station is 3.1 miles away!......
still waiting
says...
4:48pm Mon 23 Aug 10
Ya wine me UP, 'sta
says...
6:26pm Mon 23 Aug 10
Lil
says...
7:23pm Mon 23 Aug 10
jaygee
says...
7:28pm Mon 23 Aug 10
Titter ye not
says...
2:47am Tue 24 Aug 10
sparky_2004
says...
4:38pm Tue 24 Aug 10
still waiting wrote:No axe to grind and no vilification needed - just a bit of education for you as regards the big picture!
You haven't got an axe to grind on this one, have you, Sparky? When you think that the response time for rural areas is (unless the East sussex fire chief is misleading we poor souls on the East Sussex coast) 14 minutes there's really not a lot of difference between retained firefighters turning out from just down the road & full-time firefighters coming from a bit further? Could a bit of it maybe be that firefighters are becoming a tad too pricey. I know all the arguments about lives might be lost etc etc, but the public purse can only afford so much, and however much the Fire Brigades Union might protest (and they are a very effective body when it comes to protecting their members' interests) the fire service is going to have to reorganise and come up with some savings. Stand by now and watch the villification head in my direction...
Worthing 'main station' will be under increasing pressure due to the cuts that may happen elsewhere...For example:
http://www.worthingh
erald.co.uk/lancing/
MP-backs-Lancing-fir
e-station.6491154.jp
It's not just the location of a base station, it's the area it must cover and hence the effects on it's assets - in other words, an ever decreasing number of appliances covering (as stated before) a larger number of houses/buildings! So if appliances are called to Lancing for example (in the event of the cutbacks proposed above), can you tell me what the response time would be to Findon?...And what about cover for Worthing itself?...maybe you want to reduce response times to the lowest denominator, but I bet the majority don't!
It won't be long before the fire service won't be able to cope with more than a couple of simultaneous fires...so what happens then?
sparky_2004
says...
8:28am Thu 26 Aug 10
/news/uk-11084406 ... yet another central government/EADS fiasco!
Titter ye not says...
3:28pm Mon 23 Aug 10