Declan Clune, Southampton Socialist Party
Frontline fire services in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight face £1.6 million of cuts. A protest outside of Hampshire Fire and Rescue HQ in Eastleigh was called by the local Fire Brigades Union (FBU) branch and Southampton Trades Council on 15 July. Socialist Party members in the area joined in support.
The fire service is already stretched beyond safe limits, and this renewed wave of austerity poses a threat to both firefighters and the public.
12,000 jobs
This latest round of cuts will mean 30 firefighter jobs being axed, as well as cuts to vital safety equipment, including engines and pumps our firefighters and communities rely on in an emergency. It is clear that this will put more lives at risk. The cuts nationwide since 2010 have seen firefighter numbers slashed by 12,000.
The other impacts of these cuts include an increase in response times across the service. Firefighters told us that when a serious fire took hold recently in Petersfield, Hampshire, there were no available firefighters in the area and a response was deployed from Grayshott Station, 49 miles away. Only one engine was deployed due to a lack of resources and found that it was unable to engage with the fire due to its size. Only by pure luck this was not a residential fire.
A firefighter also informed us that, due to a lack of resources on the island, firefighters have had to be deployed from the mainland to deal with fires there. They have had to use ferry services to cross the Solent, losing valuable time.
Endanger lives
They said cuts would lead to an increase in already unachievable workloads for members who are already working beyond capacity. There will be a reduction in the resilience for response to incidents due to having fewer fire stations to call on, and it would undermine public safety and endanger the lives of our firefighters.
Previous cuts have amounted to almost half of firefighters at some stations. At Redbridge Station in Southampton, they have already been cut from 64 down to 36. These new proposals could see only 24 firefighters left at Redbridge, a station that in 2010 saw the tragic loss of firefighters James Shears and Alan Bannon when responding to a fire in a tower block.
The discussions taking place at the protest centred on the failures of the Labour government and its continuation of cuts to vital public services. Some of the FBU activists informed everyone that they would be attending a lobby of MPs in Parliament the following day to try and apply pressure and stop these cuts.
The FBU campaign locally is called STOP, THINK, REASSESS. This was the message given to the protest outside the fire authority meeting taking place to discuss these latest cuts. There was clear support from the local traffic passing by, with vehicles beeping and drivers shouting words of encouragement.
No-show councillors
Shamefully, it was reported later the meeting could not proceed due to the fact that only five members of the Fire Authority (made up of local councillors) had turned up, and was postponed.
We will do all we can to support the FBU to grow the campaign and stop these horrific cuts, fight to restore funding to our fire services and bring back our firefighters to restore the numbers of firefighters, along with the engines and equipment they need.
Please support the campaign by signing the petition here: www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/stop-think-reassess-dangerous-cuts-to-firefighter-numbers
