Fire chief says plans to remove fire engines are 'not cuts'

Proposals that could see the loss of eight on-call engines in total were included in a resource review report by Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority.

Union leaders and senior councillors have spoken out against the plans, saying they will put members of the public and crews at risk.

But chief fire officer Jon Pryce said no decisions have been made yet, with a consultation set to get underway in the New Year.

“These proposals are not cuts, as every penny saved will be reinvested in the staffing on the remaining fire engines to make them more resilient, and for some fire engines to have larger crew sizes,” he said.

“This would mean more firefighters on the busiest first fire engines, and better availability of our remaining on-call fire engines, something which the Fire Brigades Union and staff have been asking for repeatedly for many years.

“The review does not propose closing any fire station, or removing or reducing any first fire engine, at any of our 25 fire stations. This review is focused on those fire stations with more than one fire engine where that additional fire engine is not used very often, and can suffer from low levels of availability of on-call firefighters.

“These proposals for changes in how we use some of our resources are also additional to the investment in the 'front line' of over half a million pounds in improving staffing and resilience at Malvern, Evesham and Droitwich Fire Stations (first fire engine), that is already planned to be implemented in the New Year. 

“It is somewhat disingenuous to portray these proposals as cuts to the 'front line' as 2024 will see a significant investment in our fire engine staffing, alongside the Resource Review proposals which are a way of changing how we use some of our underused available resources for better long term sustainability, by employing more full time firefighters at five other locations.”

Mr Pryce urged people to read the review, which is available to view at hwfire.org.uk.