James Gretton, Kent and East Sussex Socialist Party
Cuts proposed by Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) were defeated at a Fire Authority extraordinary meeting on 6 August, following opposition organised by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU).
KFRS had recommended cutting 63 firefighter posts, six engines and five on-call stations – Chilham, Wye, Cliffe, Grain and Westerham. With the Fire Authority’s 17-2 decision, these recommendations will not get as far as public consultation. FBU general secretary Steve Wright celebrated the firefighters’ “strong fighting trade union spirit alongside the local community”.
The proposal to close the stations was inadvertently leaked by senior officials in June, with KFRS chief executive Ann Millington justifying them as “based on risk intelligence and data analysis”. On 4 August, the FBU organised a demonstration at County Hall in Maidstone, where Kent County Council is headquartered. The council’s Reform administration has continued with austerity. This has included a failed DOGE-style efficiency unit which has since been overhauled, and a 4% council tax hike, which Reform had promised not to raise.
But faced with the FBU organising, the overwhelming majority of the Fire Authority’s members – which includes councillors from all the austerity parties, including Reform and Labour – rejected these plans.
After the vote, Millington reiterated her claims that KFRS’s cut proposals “were formed based on comprehensive data and evidence […] while easing financial pressures.” Since 2010, over 12,000 firefighter jobs have been cut nationally, including over 8,000 wholetime posts, and 462 in Kent.
The FBU also warned the government in a 2023 report that austerity has left fire services understaffed and ill-equipped to combat wildfires, calling for “urgent climate action.”
The answers to austerity and climate change go hand-in-hand. Trade unions organising workers and winning support from working-class communities is the way forward.
