Public to have their say on fire station closures

Seven fire engines will be removed from the fleet if the changes go ahead

A public consultation is to be held on plans to close two of a county's fire stations and remove fire engines.

Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority is proposing to shut the stations in Great Missenden and Stokenchurch and take appliances away from five other sites.

The plan has been prompted by difficulties in recruiting enough on-call firefighters.

The county's chief fire officer said the measures were "not cuts" but "opportunities to invest".

Fire brigades across the UK are finding it difficult to recruit on-call firefighters, who usually have other jobs but get called out when needed.

Wednesday's fire authority meeting heard that even with new recruits, high staff turnover made it hard to maintain crew numbers, let alone increase them.

A recruitment drive at one of the stations earmarked for closure resulted in just one person expressing an interest.

Chief Fire Officer Louise Harrison said: "We don't talk about cuts"

Conservative members of the authority described the proposed measures as "cuts", with one of its councillors, David Carroll, saying they were "all about cost now".

He added: "How can you put a price on trust? How can you put a price on fear?"

Chief Fire Officer Louise Harrison told the meeting "we don't talk about cuts" and said afterwards: "I don't see these as cuts; I see these as opportunities to invest.

"Some of the fire engines haven't actually been in use for a number of years now."

Alternative fire service vehicles will replace the engines at some sites.

Liberal Democrat Niknam Hussain said the proposals did not involve taking money from the service

Niknam Hussain, a Liberal Democrat on the authority, said: "No money has been taken out of the service.

"All that's happened is two stations that are in the doldrums and haven't been used for five years are facing reality."

Conservative Simon Rouse tried to get the consultation period extended

Simon Rouse, the Conservative former chair of the authority, proposed a motion to extend the public consultation period from 10 weeks to 12.

It was defeated, which Rouse described as "a real shame" because "over the Christmas and New Year period, people will not participate; parish councils won't meet.

"This consultation is a rubber-stamping exercise."

The authority voted to put the proposals out to public consultation.

Chris Wycherley, of the Fire Brigades Union, said the plans were a "slash mechanism badged up as improvements and it's not going to improve anything.

"We need to look at the root cause of failure."