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10
Sept
Deputy mayor criticises Stray Ferret for revealing firefighter shortage
Labour deputy mayor Jo Coles has criticised the Stray Ferret for highlighing safety concerns caused by an acute shortage of local on-call firefighters.
We revealed on Saturday that crew availability had declined significantly among on-call crews in the Harrogate district over the last two years.
On-call firefighters are based at home or work and therefore take longer to respond to incidents.
Ripon’s on-call crew is only able to respond 17% of the time. The figures for Summerbridge and Boroughbridge are 21% and 23% respectively.
The Stray Ferret investigated the issue after being contacted by local firefighter sources concerned about public safety.
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service initially declined to reveal the figures in response to a Stray Ferret freedom of information request but relented after we requested an internal review.
The figures from our freedom of information request.
Safety concerns
Former firefighter Robert Windass, a Conservative councillor who represents Boroughbridge and Claro described the figures as “absolutely disgusting” and said they raised concerns about public safety.
Cllr Windass also questioned why council taxpayers were paying more for the fire service when cover had appeared to reduce.
Band D council taxpayers saw their precept for fire services increase by £24 to £107.02 in 2025/26 — a rise of 29%.
Ms Coles, who is paid £68,750 to scrutinise the fire service and hold fire chiefs to account, holds online public meetings that have discussed the challenges of recruiting on-call firefighters.
Last year Damian Henderson, area manager and director of service improvement and assurance at North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, told one of the meetings a station manager had been recruited to oversee on-call activity and he was "very hopeful we will start to see an improvement in that availability figure".
Boroughbridge Fire Station
We asked Ms Coles why this had not happened and what she was doing to tackle the problem.
Her response did not address these issues but instead focused on the Stray Ferret’s coverage, which stated “the value of firefighters has been highlighted by their response to the Langdale Moor fire” and included a link to North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue’s on-call firefighter recruitment page.
She said:
It is extremely disappointing that the Stray Ferret chose to run this story during a major fire in our region and at a time when all of our firefighters – wholetime and on-call – have been rightly focused on tackling the ongoing incident in Langdale and maintaining fire cover across the region. Having spoken to many crews from local stations, and at the scene, I know how committed they are to keeping everyone in our region safe.
As part of my role as the deputy mayor for policing, fire and crime, it is my job to hold the fire and rescue service to account including by monitoring data about the overall availability of fire engines and response times to emergencies These online public meetings take place regularly and the next one will be on 18 September. As always, the public are welcome to submit questions to the meeting.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the tireless efforts of all of our firefighters and those from other fire and rescue services who have worked so hard to keep us all safe over recent weeks. I also want to thank the firefighters’ partners, families, the employers of on-call firefighters, as well as farmers, contractors and businesses who have come together to tackle the Langdale incident and to bring it under control.
In response, Tamsin O'Brien, the director of the Stray Ferret said:
I am surprised that Ms Coles chose to criticise the Stray Ferret rather than show concern for what we have reported.
I suspect most people think our investigation and data is even more important because of the recent Langdale fire as it reveals a shortage of resources.
Our role at the Stray Ferret is to highlight issues in the public interest and hold those responsible accountable. We are still waiting to hear from Ms Coles as to what her plans are to address the shortage of local firefighters.
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