WHAT with cuts to the local fire service and the government raid on firefighter pensions, there is so much going on in the fire brigade at the moment it’s understandable that things get confused.

However, the Argus report (Fire Service: We coped with strike) conflates the two issues.

The comments I gave to The Argus about the Newhaven fire, pictured below, and my concerns about lack of fire cover were given the day before the strike (which is about pensions) and not related to it.

The points I was making related to the fire engine that will be cut from Hove leaving the city with four fire engines instead of five.

On day three of the Newhaven fire there were five fire engines in attendance.

Two fire engines were available in Brighton (one had to come from Seaford) and there were no fire engines in Hove.

My concern is that had the cuts already gone through, there would have been just one fire engine to cover the whole of the city of Brighton and Hove.

Where people are inside a burning building, a minimum of three fire engines would be needed.

This means our city was left without sufficient fire cover.

This is an unacceptable risk and such chances should not be taken with people’s lives.

The Newhaven fire demonstrates that resources are already stretched and that further cuts will risk the lives of the public and firefighters.

Once again I call upon the fire authority to reverse their decision to cut the fire engine from our city. The safety of our residents and our firefighters should come first.

Nancy Platts,

Labour parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven