Councillors said today they had “major concerns” about plans to reduce the number of night time fire engines in Harrogate to one.
North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe defended her plans at a special meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Constituency Committee.
Ms Metcalfe, a Conservative, told the Liberal Democrat-controlled committee she would still consider a shake-up of Harrogate’s night time fire service even if she had “millions in reserves”.
Ms Metcalfe told the meeting the plans “were not cuts” but the right thing to do. She said:
“If they were cuts, they would have happened yesterday. We do have a balanced budget until 2026. Let’s be very clear on that.
“If I had millions of pounds worth in the bank of reserves, I would still be doing this. I would still be going out on consultation, because it is absolutely right that we identify our risk and where our risk is in the county and York and then put the right resources to cover that risk.”
Ms Metcalfe added that no fire stations were closing and no whole time firefighters were losing their jobs.
Her three-year plan for the fire service includes proposals on staff shift patterns, the number of fire engines operating at night and putting a greater emphasis on fire prevention.
Harrogate and Scarborough currently both have an emergency fire engine and a tactical response fire engine operating 24 hours a day.
Ms Metcalfe’s model proposes both stations have two emergency response vehicles during the day but only one at night. They would lose their tactical response engines altogether.
‘Race to the bottom’
Paul James, chair of the Fire Brigades Union in North Yorkshire, said the plan would leave Harrogate fire station in a “race to the bottom” on response times.
Mr James told the meeting the changes amounted to cuts and that Harrogate was an area of high risk due to its density.
He added that a cut in funding nationally “has dovetailed” with slow response times locally and criticised the lack of a response standard from the service.
Paul James, chair of the North Yorkshire Fire Brigades Union branch, at today’s meeting.
Mr James said:
“Harrogate still requires two appliances during the night to cover serious fires, if positive outcomes are to be achieved.
“Under these proposals during the night time hours Ripon, Tadcaster, Malton, Northallerton and Selby will all have more fire engines than Harrogate.”
He added:
“We feel that the continuing avoidance of declaring a standard [response time] is the avoidance of transparency and accountability.
“These proposals will see Harrogate enter the response time race to the bottom that much of the rest of the county competes in.”
Dave Winspear, director of transformation at North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, denied there was a “race to the bottom” on response times for Harrogate.
Read more:
- Fire Brigades Union ‘seriously concerned’ over cuts to Harrogate service
- Harrogate firefighter brands plans to rely on one fire engine ‘farcical’
- Harrogate fire station changes won’t increase risk to life, says commissioner
Meanwhile, some councillors were critical of the proposals.
Cllr Robert Windass, a Conservative representing Boroughbridge who was a fire fighter in Leeds for 30 years, said he did not feel the figures on night time fires “were right”.
He added:
“I did 30 years in Leeds and the most fatalities and the most people we had to rescue was during the hours of night.
“Not during the day, we did get them, but the majority was at night time when people were asleep and when something went wrong such as children playing with matches and things like that.
“So I won’t dispute your figures, but I don’t think they are right.”
As part of its response to the plans, the committee agreed to express major concerns over night cover but welcomed investment in prevention work.
You can find out more about the proposed changes and take part in the consultation here.
