THE Fire Brigade Union says that fire and rescue service for Hereford and Worcester are being downgraded following a decision to cut seven firefighter posts.
The union says this means the service will be relying more heavily on ‘retained’, or on-call, firefighters whose primary employment is elsewhere.
It says the service has already cut 70 full-time firefighter jobs since 2012.
The two stations set to feel the impact of the cuts are Evesham and Malvern, and their surrounding villages.
The FBU says yhese stations currently provide a fire engine 24/7 for 365 days a year.
It claims that under the proposed changes there will be full-time cover from Monday to Friday until 6pm, when on-call firefighters will take over through the night.
It adds that retained firefighters at Evesham currently attend just under 70 incidents a year – this figure could rise to 260 when the changes are implemented while for Malvern numbers could increase from 70 to 290.
In addition the union says this is happening while Hereford and Worcester fire and rescue service (HWFRS) hold a reserve revenue of £7.71 million.
A spokesperson for HWFRS said Malvern Fire Station is currently crewed between 8am and 6pm by wholetime and on-call firefighters. Out of these hours, on-call firefighters already respond to any incidents. The new system would mean they would respond for an extra 40 minutes per day.
“Our on-call firefighters are fully trained to the same standard as wholetime staff and are able to respond to any kind of emergency situation,” they said.
“Furthermore, they are required to live within 5 minutes of the station so have a good level of local knowledge.”
They added that the authority has £1.5m in its General Reserve, which is held separately and seen as prudent financial management.
It also has £3.2m in other uncommitted reserves. The recently approved Medium Term Financial Plan ear marked £1.7m of this to smooth the budget gaps until 2020/21 as the authority identifies future savings of £1.6m per year leaving £1.4m available if these saving plans don’t occur fast enough.
“To provide a crew of five on a fire engine at Worcester, Kidderminster, Redditch, Droitwich, Malvern, Evesham, Bromsgrove and Hereford using existing crewing models will cost an additional £1,065,645 per year and not the £215,000 quoted by the FBU,” said the spokesperson.
“In 2008, HWFRS employed 656 operational staff and 590 in 2017. This is a reduction of ten per cent. If the current proposals are implemented, there will be no redundancies and a further seven posts will be removed through the natural turnover of staff.
“Meaning that there will be a reduction since 2008 of 11 per cent. In 2008 HWFRS had 45 middle and senior officers, in 2017 there are 30, which is a reduction of 33 per cent.”
