Councillors are expected to discuss the shortage of on-call firefighters after the Stray Ferret revealed many local stations are unable to raise crews more than 75% of the time.

We reported on Saturday (September 6) that crew availability had declined significantly at all local on-call stations and is now down to 17% in Ripon, 21% in Summerbridge and 23% in Boroughbridge.

The statistics prompted safety concerns because on-call firefighters are based at home or work and therefore take longer to respond to incidents. One councillor also said they raised questions about why the fire service precept had risen by 29% at a time when fire cover appeared to be reducing. 

Jo Coles, the Labour deputy mayor for York and North Yorkshire, who is responsible for scrutinising the fire service, declined to comment on the figures when approached by us. Instead, she said it was “extremely disappointing that the Stray Ferret chose to run this story during a major fire in our region”.

However, Cllr Chris Aldred, a Liberal Democrat who represents High Harrogate and Kingsley, said the timing of the Langdale Moor fire should not have prevented the news being published.

Cllr Aldred is a member of the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel, which scrutinises the deputy mayor’s performance. He said the availability of on-call firefighters was likely to feature at the panel’s next meeting on October 8 now that the figures had been published. He said: “I’d be surprised if it isn’t one of the topics up for discussion.”

Cllr Aldred added he fully understood safety concerns. “If I was in Ripon, I’d be very worried,” he said, adding low availability of on-call firefighters was a national problem felt acutely in rural North Yorkshire.

He suggested the fire service may have to employ more full-time firefighters: “This is not the best model, especially for rural areas and we need to look at different ways of doing things.”