New fire station plans given go ahead

The fire station in the town was demolished in September 2024

Plans to build a new fire station on the Isle of Wight have been approved by the local authority.

The new building on York Avenue at East Cowes will be used by the island's on-call firefighters to respond to incidents, to maintain the island's fleet of fire service vehicles and will also include a decontamination area.

It will replace the fire station in the town, shut in May 2024 after it was found to be structurally unsafe, beyond economic repair and contained asbestos. It was demolished in September 2024.

Work on the new building is expected to start later this year.

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire Authority approved the new building last year before initial plans were drawn up.

The Isle of Wight Council granted full planning permission for the station on Wednesday and the rescue service's Director of Corporate Services, Matt Robertson said: "We are pleased to see that our plans for a new fire station building have been approved, and we can now get to work with the next stage of the development."

On 5 September, the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service announced a number of cuts to save money including shutting Bembridge Fire Station and combining Yarmouth and Freshwater fire stations.

Further savings were made after it announced that data analysis had confirmed only one Aerial Ladder Platform, used to fight fires in tall structures, was required on the island.