Sledmere Closure - Ward Councillors ask for reassurance

Driffield & Rural Ward Cllr, Felicity Temple attended and addressed the meeting of the ERYC overview and scrutiny review panel on Friday 8th February, looking into the Fire Authority’s proposal to close Sledmere and other Fire Stations.

 

After the meeting Councillor Temple commented, “Our main concerns, as Ward Councillors, centre round the apparent lack of any plan from the Fire Service as to how they propose to provide a better fire prevention service to the residents of remote rural villages like Fimber, Cowlam & Cottam and Sledmere.  Additionally the Chief Fire Officer seems unable to tell us how he is going to strengthen Driffield Fire Station’s ability to respond to the additional coverage it will have to provide.”

 

Councillor Temple went on to say, “There are three specific actions which we think the Fire Service should be providing –

 

  • Firstly a retained Fire Prevention Officer, who could be recruited from the village locality and from whom the residents, farmers and business premises owners from those villages could easily get fire prevention information advice and help.

 

  • Secondly, we would also like to see the Fire Service put forward a scheme to encourage householders from these scattered villages who do not have mains gas to have their chimneys swept regularly.  In our view the Fire Service could introduce a voucher scheme to enable residents who depend on open coal and log fires to get discounts on regular chimney sweeping.  Such a scheme would probably save the Fire Service money in the long term through less call outs to tackle this local problem of chimney fires which the CFO highlighted at the Sledmere meeting.

 

  • Thirdly, we have major concerns about the Fire Service commitment to Driffield.  They really need to be explaining how they build the capacity of this station to respond to fires, road traffic accidents and other local emergencies, such as flooding.  We want to be assured that Driffield Fire Station will receive the investment needed, such as specialist rescue equipment, to provide the correct level of service to the vast area that it serves.  We need to remember what the CFO termed, “The Golden Hour”, which is so important in saving lives."

 8 February 2008