Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Are Some of Haringey's Fire Stations Set to Close?
Local Assembly Member Joanne McCartney fears that fire stations in Haringey are at risk of closure.
At Wednesday’s London Assembly Fire Authority question and answer session details were revealed about the potential impact of cuts on fire-fighting in London. The London Fire Commissioner explained that they have already proposed £14million of cuts with a further £21million still to be identified. This amounts to £35million of cuts to be made in the next financial year.
The Commissioner said that the cost of operating a fire station with one fire appliance is £1.4million per year. This means that 15 fire stations and appliances are at risk of closure this year with up to 25 next year. There are currently 112 fire stations in London.
The London Fire Brigade is facing steep cuts due to the government cutting the fire budget by 25%; this is even deeper than the 20% cut to the police’s budget.
Enfield and Haringey Greater London Assembly Member, Joanne McCartney, said:
“It’s unclear whether Haringey will be affected but with so many stations at risk and five stations currently serving Enfield and Haringey, I fear that we will be hit.
“Today’s news confirms our worst fears, in total up to 40 fire stations are at risk of closure in the next two years, along with their fire appliances. If we lose such a large chunk of our existing fire cover it will impact on public safety.
“We understand that savings have to be made, but the level of cuts forced on the London Fire Brigade by government is truly reckless. They are cutting too far, too fast. They are hitting front-line services and putting public safety at risk.
Tags for Forum Posts: fire service, public spending cuts
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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The real question to ask is, what is right level of cover?
I don't know what the answer is, but probably not as many as 50 years ago. In that time, the number of house fires has fallen dramatically, due to the reduction in naked flame, mainly fewer domestic coal fires and fags. The current number of fire stations may still be geared to the needs of 50 years ago.
Sadly, the comments above reflect a vested interest viewpoint, the same with so much else, such as defence capacity and procurement. The number of fire stations and the need for defence equipment (e.g. Trident) need to be viewed objectively.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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London has very congested roads so the time it takes for fire fighters to get to an incident is part of a vital formula. Trident "defends" us against imagined attacks. We could pretend to have Trident and it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference to national security as its is a M.A.D. weapon so we can't use it. Fire fighters defend us again real emergencies.
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Michael I'm not suggesting fire "fighters" don't defend us against real emergencies. I'm asking, how many is enough? Is it possible to have too many fire "fighters"? Is it possible to have too many nuclear weapons?
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Don,t know the number of firefighters we need Clive, but I know exactly how many nuclear weapons we need - 0.
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Michael perhaps I can make the point a bit clearer in this way: if you believe the current level of fire cover is good and desirable, surely if it were doubled, the cover would be that much better and if we tripled the number of fire stations, the cover would be three times better than we have at the moment.
Further, if we did a reductio ad absurdum, and had every second house as fire station, this would fully meet your point about London's congested roads. This would reduce the time taken to get to an incident to near-zero, and as you say, time taken to get to an incident is a part of a vital formula.
None of this is to disregard or disrespect the job firemen do – increasingly rarely – far from it.
To the best of my knowledge, the number of house fires is significantly down on 50 years ago (halved?). (IMHO, Trident is unnecessary and a waste of money).
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Yes, the number of house fires has fallen but I imagine the number RTAs has gone up in the last 50 years simply because of the increase in the number of vehicles on the road. The fire brigade do more than put out fires.
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Yes, agree with what you say; it is still possible that the service is over-manned peopled and/or has over-capacity or the wrong kind of capacity.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Looks like Haringey fire stations, including our local at Hornsey are not on the list of stations set to close, according to a leaked list to the BBC, at least for now.
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