Union urges deputy mayor to reconsider Harrogate on-call firefighters decisionAnonymous £10k boost to Knaresborough man’s Ukraine fire engine appeal

A fundraising campaign by a Knaresborough man to buy a fire engine to send to Ukraine has received a £10,000 donation.

Bob Frendt was hoping to raise £20,000 to buy the appliance and send it to Volodymyr, which had its fire engines commandeered by the army in the fight against Russia.

However, he said he was worrying the total was unachievable, after getting stuck at £7,000 for several weeks.

He told the Stray Ferret:

“I was getting a bit depressed and very stressed over it. I was thinking, ‘I’ve bitten off more than I can chew’, making promises I couldn’t keep and letting people down.

“Then I got this call out of the blue from a man who came to a fundraising folk night in Wetherby and heard me say a few words about what I was doing.

“He said he wanted to make a donation and asked for my bank details. He didn’t say how much – but when I saw it come through, I couldn’t believe it.

“I’m still buzzing now. I can’t believe it has happened. It just shows you what wonderful people there are around.”

The donor has asked to remain anonymous, but said the money was taken from a legacy left by his mother after she died earlier this year.

The man told Mr Frendt she was always a generous supporter of good causes, and had left him “more than he could ever spend” in her will.

In recognition of their generosity, Mr Frendt said he will name the fire engine after the man’s mother.

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Now, he is working with a former fire officer to source an appliance that he can take across Europe and hand over to the fire service in Volodymyr.

He added:

“I just need to raise the last £3,000 now.

“The paperwork shouldn’t take too long to get sorted. Hopefully, we can get it to Volodymyr before the end of October, when the weather closes in.

“If we can’t do that, we’re looking at not doing it until the end of March next year. I don’t want to leave it that long – they’ve got to have that fire engine.”

To help him take his funds from £17,000 to the total, Knot Another Choir will be performing a fundraising concert at Trinity Church in Knaresborough on October 6.

Tickets are £10 and available to buy online in advance.

Donations can also be made via Mr Frendt’s Just Giving page.

Knaresborough man launches crowdfunder to send fire engine to Ukraine

A retired lorry driver who has taken seven truckloads of aid to Ukraine from Knaresborough has set himself a new challenge.

Bob Frendt, who is in his 70s, made his final trip to eastern Europe earlier this month and has said he will not complete another aid journey.

However, he is hoping to help in another way.

While visiting Volodymyr in western Ukraine over the last year, he discovered the town’s fire engines had been commandeered by the army.

During his last visit, he was told about the impact of this. He said:

“We heard there had been people killed in a fire four weeks earlier because they don’t have a fire engine.

“I said, ‘I promise I will buy you a fire engine. I don’t know how, I don’t know where I’m going to get the money from, but I will do it by the end of the year.'”

Bob is known for keeping his promises.

Over the last 15 months, he has been transporting medical equipment for the hospital, as well as IT and other supplies the school requested.

Before Christmas, he transported hundreds of gifts to distribute to local children, and took Easter eggs to the hospital’s children’s ward during his visit in April.

As well as taking donations from people around Knaresborough and beyond, he contacted numerous businesses across the area to ask for contributions of unwanted medical equipment and more.

He was given the lorry by a supporter, but it cost him £2,500 in fuel, insurance and ferries every time he travelled to Ukraine and back, and he now plans to sell the lorry to clear the overdrafts he and wife Maureen had used to fund the last trip.

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Bob is determined to raise enough money to buy and transport at least one fire engine to Volodymyr, to prevent more lives being lost and homes and businesses being destroyed if a fire breaks out.

He is being supported by Chain Lane Community Hub, which has been working with many Ukrainians who have fled the country since Russia invaded last February.

Knaresborough is now home to around 350 Ukrainians, many of whom have been helped to learn English, find work and settle into the community through the Chain Lane hub.

Bob has also been instrumental in moves to twin Knaresborough with Volodymyr, with both mayors keen to sign up to a twinning agreement.

A Crowdfunding page has been set up to help Bob reach the £20,000 he needs for the cause. On it, the team from the hub wrote:

“Chain Lane Community Hub want to support Bob in his continued support for this town by helping Bob to fundraise for further Humanitarian Aid to Volodymyr, with one of the intentions to purchase and transport a fire engine specifically for this town.

“We can feel so helpless watching the news from Ukraine but this is a way we can really make a difference to these brave people in their time of need.”

To donate to the cause, visit the Crowdfunding page.

North Yorkshire fire commissioner says she would still consider cuts even with ‘millions in the bank’

North Yorkshire’s police, fire and crime commissioner has said she would still consider proposed changes to Harrogate’s fire crews “even if the service had millions of pounds in the bank”.

Commissioner Zoë Metcalfe is due to announce her decision on the plans to cut the number of night-time fire engines to just one on Thursday.

She has argued that the changes would allow Harrogate fire station to have two better-equipped fire engines during the day when emergencies are more likely to occur.

Commissioner Metcalfe has also said the proposals – which are part of a new risk and resource model – would allow for investment in fire prevention.

Asked at a council meeting last night whether she would still consider the plans if the fire service was better funded, commissioner Metcalfe said she “would still be doing this” and that she was “very assured” residents will be “kept safe”.

She said:

“We are always looking at different ways to get additional money into the fire service.

“We have this juxtaposition where North Yorkshire Police is what I would call well funded, but the fire service has just only got a balanced budget.

“As far as I am concerned about the risk and resource modelling, I would still be doing this even if we had a lot of money in the bank.”

Currently, Harrogate fire station has one fire engine which can respond to all emergencies and a smaller “tactical response” vehicle that both operate around the clock.

Under the proposals put forward by the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, the smaller vehicle would be replaced by a larger fire engine, but it would only be crewed during the day.

The plans have drawn criticism from North Yorkshire’s Fire Brigades Union which said the changes along with similar proposals for Scarborough and Huntington would leave the county with a “second-rate emergency response service that will put lives at risk”.

Commissioner Metcalfe has repeatedly insisted that the proposals have been based on “extensive” risk assessments which look at when and where emergencies are most likely to occur.

She also said the changes would allow for improvements in other areas including the fire service’s on-call model which means only five out of 38 fire stations are currently crewed 24 hours a day.

These are Acomb, Harrogate, Huntington, Scarborough and York fire stations.

Commissioner Metcalfe told last night’s meeting: “It is really important to realise that our community risk profile makes sure that we identify where the risks are and that the right amount of resources are in place.

“It is also absolutely right that we invest in prevention and protection, as well as our on-call model which desperately needs attention.”

Councillors raise concern over Harrogate fire station cuts

Councillors have raised concerns over plans to cut the number of fire engines at Harrogate fire station.

North Yorkshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Zoe Metcalfe, has suggested operating just one fire engine at night as opposed to the current two.

Members of the Harrogate and Knaresborough Area Constituency Committee discussed the proposals, which were unveiled as part of a consultation into changes at the fire service.

The station would continue to be resourced with two fire engines during the day but it would have just one appliance from 10pm to 9am, when fewer incidents usually occur.

The move would also see the station lose its tactical response vehicle, which would be moved to an on-call station elsewhere in the county, and a self-rostering staffing system introduced.

Cllr Robert Windass, who spoke at the constituency committee this morning.

Cllr Robert Windass, who spoke at the constituency committee this morning.

Cllr Robert Windass, who is a former fire fighter, said he welcomed the removal of the tactical response unit which he described as a “total waste of time”.

However, he raised concern over the reduction of crews on a night.

He said:

“My worry is at night time. Night time is when most people die in house fires.

“To have one crew going out, there will be another machine coming from another station. But say it was down at the bottom of Woodfield, the next nearest response vehicle is either going to come from Ripon or from Knaresborough.

“Both of them are part-time, what they call “on-call stations”, where they will get a bleeper going off at home and they would have to go down the fire station before that machine turns a wheel.

“So it’s going to take them quite a few minutes to get to the fire. That concerns me.”

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The committee agreed to invite Ms Metcalfe and the chief fire officer to the next meeting to be quizzed by councillors.

Cllr Chris Aldred said the committee had to get it right before it responds to the consultation.

He said:

“It is so important, as Robert has just stated, that we have a second crew.

“Fires may statistically may not happen that often at night, but as Robert has just said, the ones that do lead to deaths.”

The changes are part of Ms Metcalfe’s Risk and Resource Model 2022-2025, which sets out how the fire service will deploy its people, equipment and resources.

Fire officials told a meeting last month that the proposals would help to save £1.5 million a year from 2025.

Jonathan Foster, interim chief fire officer at North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, said that the proposals were about investing in “protection and prevention”.

He said:

“I stress this very much so, this is about reinvestment back into the on-call duty system to improve overall availability and then also to reinvest in protection and prevention activities so that we can protect the people of North Yorkshire and City of York in a much more effective manner.”