Safety fears raised over Hampshire and Isle of Wight fire cuts
As part of the savings, less frequently used fire engines at four on-call stations - Romsey Waterlooville, Petersfield and Lymington - would be removed.Introducing a new specialist rescue vehicle and fire vehicle would lead to a reduction of 20 staff at Cosham and Redbridge stations, although there will be no redundancies, HIWFRS said.Last month it unveiled plans to combine Yarmouth and Freshwater fire stations, which would mean two fire engines could operate in the west of the Isle of Wight.There are also proposals to stop operational responses from Bembridge fire station.The Isle of Wight plans are open to public consultation until the end of July.Rob Cole, assistant chief fire officer, said in developing its savings proposals, the service had "carefully reviewed our community risk levels against our resources".He said: "The costs of delivering our services have outpaced the funding we receive. "Without an increase in government funding, fire and rescue services have no choice but to find ways to make savings, but we will always seek to do that in a way that ensures we can continue to reduce risk and respond to emergencies as quickly and as effectively as we can."
'Increase response times'
The National Fire Chiefs Council recently criticised "prolonged disinvestment in fire and rescue services over many years".Many fire services also faced a shortfall in funding after the government failed to give them the same level of compensation for tax increases as the police, BBC research found.Addressing a meeting of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire Authority, Mr Hunt said the service was already "losing resilience"."If implemented, these cuts will increase response times," he said."Ultimately we're undermining both public and firefighter safety - as firefighters, we need to know we have the right number of people when we turn up."He called for a "full and detailed review" of HIWFRS' current work and roles and said the service should "put safety first and stop these cuts".The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said fire and rescue Authorities have received almost £3bn in the last financial year."We understand the challenges that fire services are facing, and despite the inheritance this government has been left with, we are determined to deliver better public services through our Plan for Change," it added.
You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
11 minutes ago
- BBC News
Rewilding charity seeks views on reintroducing storks to London
The image of a stork carrying a baby in a bundle dangling from its beak, on its way to deliver the child to its new parents, is as old as the birds and the the long-legged birds largely disappeared from the skies above London centuries ago due to hunting and habitat loss - though babies continued to be born in the capital despite their absence. Now a conservation charity is asking Londoners for their views on the potential return of white storks to the birds are known to thrive in urban settings on the continent, and urban rewilding organisation Citizen Zoo is conducting an appraisal on making London a "white stork-friendly city". Citizen Zoo said it is reaching out to boroughs across the capital to gauge their response and surveying the public about the 2016, a white stork project in Sussex has sought to create new colonies of rehabilitated injured storks, with the first successful breeding in the four decades before the start of that project there were just 27 records of white storks across Greater between 2016 and 2023 there have been 472 sightings in the capital, with the numbers increasing year-on-year, conservationists Newton, co-founder and director of rewilding at Citizen Zoo, said white storks are a "talismanic, iconic species that really do draw and attract attention".He added: "You look up into the skies and see a white stork, it's quite obvious."And if you look across European landscapes, this is a bird that can actually thrive in urban landscapes, on chimneys, on pylons, and are associated with thriving in urban settings."What we want to see is how can we make London a more white stork-friendly environment, and embrace it for its ability to inspire people about the nature we can and should have close to where we live." Mr Newton said it is "completely within our will as a species to choose the environments that we build around us and we can make that conscious choice to integrate more nature into our cities, and that will bring a whole wealth of benefits."The survey of Londoners is being led by the University of Brighton, with two phases that mirror a national survey conducted as part of the white stork project in national survey found overall people were very positive towards the species, even if they had never seen storks before, although there was a lack of knowledge about things such as the stork's diet, and even what they looked a "relatively small" number of people - often those who were ecologists, conservationists or birders - were not in favour of the reintroduction, largely because it was not a threatened species and they thought it should not be a priority for first phase of the London study has involved surveying a representative sample of 1,000 Londoners, and a second phase is asking residents and frequent visitors to give their view on white storks and their place in the Newton added that "nature has a fantastic tendency to surprise us" and it is possible storks could establish themselves in London again without human to European folklore, a white stork is responsible for bringing babies to new parents. The tale was popularised by a Hans Christian Andersen story from 1839 called The Storks.
BBC News
39 minutes ago
- BBC News
Historic Devizes building gutted by fire may be demolished
A historic Wiltshire building that was gutted by fire last year may now be demolished after experts found it was too badly damaged to fire tore through the Devizes listed building, which included a kebab shop on the ground floor and accommodation on the floors above, in November of firefighters battled for 14 hours to contain the blaze, which spread to buildings either side of the property in Northgate owners have now applied for permission to demolish the building, which dates back to the late 1700s, but intend to rebuild the property subsequently. A decision by Wiltshire Council is expected in September. A report by Devizes-based surveyors Dolman says the fire "caused devastating damage with little of the original building remaining apart from the front and rear walls".Structural engineer Lark Cooper Red said, "nearly all the internal structure" had been "affected by the fire, making it no longer fit for purpose".The application says once the demolition stage is complete a second application will be made to rebuild the owners believe the two-stage approach will be of greatest benefit to the community as the building is unsafe in its current state and has necessitated the closure of one side of Northgate Street – an important access route to the town centre.
BBC News
41 minutes ago
- BBC News
Tewkesbury residents' fire fears after green not cut all year
Residents are concerned that a fire might start due to the length and dryness of a nearby Russell Davies said the patch of grass outside her house in Churchill Grove, Tewkesbury, has not been cut "at all" since 2024, with neighbour Ken Radbourne branding it "a wasteland".Tewkesbury Borough Council (TBC) cut the grass on some Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) land between eight and 12 times annually before that arrangement ended earlier this year. It had expected GCC to take the work said its financial challenges meant it could not maintain that level of cuts but was committed to helping TBC explore alternative approaches. The council said it had arranged for a different contractor to cut the grass in the TBC area, along with some parish councils, with long-term proposals to be debated in the autumn. Following complaints and concerns about a new twice-yearly schedule for grass cuts, TBC has now announced a stopgap solution, investing £30,000 to increase it to four cuts a Radbourne said it had been "difficult" to find who was responsible for the three greens on the Churchill Grove estate."Both the town and borough councils said they're not responsible and GCC alluded to them being in the ownership of the developer," he said. "The original developer of the estate ceased to exist in the 1970s." Mr Radbourne added that the other two greens were recently cut, but the third is "totally unsuitable" to be cut with a domestic lawnmower."There are two large trees on this green; if they caught fire, they're very close to houses, and it could be quite catastrophic," he said. Eileen Hicks said the current state of the green, which her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren played on, was "soul-destroying"."Nobody can use it anymore," she said. "It's such an eyesore to look out on each day... we've always kept our gardens. I love my garden."Lisa Spivey, leader of GCC, thanked TBC for its "proactive efforts" in keeping Tewkesbury "looking its best"."While the county council is not in a position to maintain the level of cuts TBC undertook due to our own financial challenges, we remain committed to supporting and advising TBC as they work with local communities to explore alternative approaches," she said.
