Camborne Redruth Fire Station Plans

It does not seem that long ago , the march from Falmouth to Camborne to save 24 hour fire cover. As shown, I have the T-shirt (mouth open and finger wagging, in a gruesomely typical pose).

Looking back, it seems incredible that there was such urgency to slash services at a a time when Labour was awarding above inflation increases to Cornwall County Council.

It’s a world away from those increases now. Over the lifetime of this parliament, Cornwall will lose almost one third of its funding from government and although this administration is being rather less gung-ho than the previous Lib Dems, there is certainly much less room to manoeuvre over budgets.

The new plans have the advantage of retaining 24 hour cover and building that long awaited Hayle station.  For my ward in Camborne North, a move to Pool or Tolvaddon would have benefits, so is unlikely to be controversial but this has to work for everyone.

And there are concerns that must be taken seriously, especially in Redruth.

At last night’s Community Network Area meeting, the Assistant Chief Officer, Paul Walker, got a grilling from representatives of Town and Parish councils as well as Cornwall Councillors. To summarise his presentation:

• Redruth is a ‘retained’ fire station and on average it takes 5 minutes 15 seconds for on call crew to arrive. Whole time crew are ready to go in 90 seconds, so as long as they can get there in 3 minutes 45 seconds from the new station, there is no loss of response time in Redruth.
• Fires in Hayle (around 160 a year and the town is growing) are currently attended from Camborne. When this happens, Redruth on call crew have to go to Camborne to cover. If Hayle has its own station, this will not be necessary, saving money with no loss of service.
• The Fire and Rescue Service is modelling all its response times on computer but they have to be tested with ‘blue light’ runs to make sure.
• Current indications are that more people (including in Redruth) will be reached within ten minutes than are at present.
• Ten minutes is the goal because it becomes more difficult to save lives after that point.
• The site has not yet been found – several alternatives are being considered – and each has to be thoroughly tested.
• New buildings will be cheaper to run and can be shared with other services =, such as Lifeline.
• There is a long way to go before the plans are put before Cabinet in June.

This deserve careful consideration and what struck me about last night’s meeting was democracy in action. The Fire & Rescue Service has to make the case and convince a whole range of Parish, Town and Unitary councillors, most of whom are sceptical and determined to stand up for their residents. The answers given have to stack up and be able to meet the challenge.  The service has to demonstrate that this will work and work well. Politics and politicians have an important and positive part to play.