Retained Firefighters

Debate between Nadhim Zahawi and Brandon Lewis

Wednesday 14th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)]

We have heard a most eloquent speech from my hon. Friend the Member for North Warwickshire (Dan Byles) about retained firefighters and their importance to their communities and to the fire service itself. He is fortunate in having some certainty about Bedworth fire station; unfortunately, I cannot report the same to the House from Stratford-on-Avon.

Our chief fire officer has had the difficult task of drawing up proposals for improving Warwickshire’s fire and rescue service. He took on the role from his predecessor after a difficult period involving a consultation process that I think Warwickshire Members would agree was flawed. That process did a lot of damage to the community’s confidence in the fire service and in a decision-making process that could lead to such unfortunate events.

The county council will discuss and evaluate three options for Warwickshire on Friday, two of which are extremely negative for us in Stratford-on-Avon. I will not dwell too long on those, but I shall speak about the third option, which is positive in the sense that we would retain Bidford and Studley fire stations.

Let me say a few words about the response of retained firefighters and the local community to the consultation on improving Warwickshire’s fire services. The way in which they have reacted has been exemplary. They have not been a barrier to change and improvement; indeed, their approach has been proactive, and when they were asked to step up to the mark, they did so by putting forward a credible set of proposals. Those proposals have made their way into option C, which involves retaining Bidford and Studley fire stations, and perhaps into option B, which would retain Bidford although, unfortunately, we would lose Studley.

I am worried that the chief fire officer has heavily skewed the process by his announcement in his report that he prefers the option under which we would lose those retained fire stations and their good fire personnel. He has stated:

“All three models will improve the level of resources available in Warwickshire for community fire safety, dealing with small fires, road traffic incidents and incidents of flooding”,

so I am slightly concerned and puzzled about why he would choose option A, given that option C would certainly be a credible approach.

I am aware that other Members wish to speak, but before I conclude, I wish to make a point about the idea that we need to improve fire safety. Many members of the public erroneously believe that their safety depends primarily on the proximity of a fire station.

[Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth) (Con)]

I agree with my hon. Friend’s comment about fire safety. Norfolk county council’s fire review is examining saving money as well as improving the service, but consideration is being given to spending more on management in Great Yarmouth yet losing 14 retained firemen. At this time, does he agree that we should all do our best in our communities to put pressure on local authorities so that they do not spend money on management and instead do the logical thing of keeping in place front-line services such as retained firemen?

[Nadhim Zahawi]

My hon. Friend raises an important point, which I hope will be taken on board not only in Great Yarmouth, but in Warwickshire when the deliberations take place on Friday.

The chief fire officer says that there will be

“a significant increase in community fire safety”

if option A is chosen, implying that having a single fire station and closing the retained fire station would mean that we would get more fire safety education in the community. I believe the opposite is true: that the closer that human beings are to their community, the more trusted their opinion will be and the more trust the community will have in improving fire safety, which is the drive for the fire service to get fire alarms into homes and prevent fires rather than react to them.

I hope that on Friday the county council will evaluate the proposals before them. I have made telephone calls today to all the cabinet, as well as writing to them personally, to say that they should look at all the options very carefully. They have promised me that they will do so and that they will look in great detail at option C and B. I implore them to do the right thing and make sure that we retain our stations in Stratford-on-Avon, whose staff are crucial to the community. That would send a positive message that we have listened to the wishes of the community and it would build a strong bridge with the local communities of Bidford and Studley.