The middle of the line

Warwickshire County Council, who run the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS), are currently considering proposals to close down 7 of the 19 stations across the county. This will remove many of the retained crews and concentrate resources on the full-time crews based in the larger towns. There are quite a few concerns that this will lead to gaps in coverage.

Last week, as today’s Advertiser reports, the Fire Service were stretched very thin due to three incidents occurring at around the same time on Thursday afternoon – a community center in Leamington caught fire and a crew from Rugby went to help deal with it. Then a nasty road accident at Butlers Leap in Rugby led to people being trapped in two cars requiring the other Rugby crew and that of Brinklow. Shortly afterwards, the Brinklow appliance was pulled from that to deal with a fire on Newbold Road that ended up being attended by crews from six stations.

Brinklow is one of the places that could lose their station. As it’s near to Rugby, that will have a knock-on effect to the town, as the crews based here will have to cover a larger area and support from elsewhere will have further to travel. WCC and the Fire Service management really need to explain how last Thursday’s events would have been covered under their proposed changes.

Andy King is already campaigning on this, opposing the closure of the stations and encouraging people to have their say about it.

If you want to contact Warwickshire FRS about this issue, the details are below:

In writing to

Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service Improvement Plan Consultation
Service Headquarters
Warwick Street
Leamington Spa
CV32 5LH

Or by e-mail to fireandrescue@warwickshire.gov.uk