FIREFIGHTERS will lose their jobs and fire stations closed unless the Government rethinks spending cuts, a North East MP yesterday warned.
Blaydon MP Dave Anderson issued the grim warning in Parliament after talks with the local chief fire officer in Tyne and Wear.
The Labour MP said: “In discussions I’ve had with the local chief officer in Tyne and Wear, he advises me that while the average loss across the country is 6.5%, in metropolitan areas it is 12.9%.
“And he believes that if that goes ahead, what will happen is a weakening of national and local resilience, firefighters being made compulsorily redundant, a further reduction in the number of rescuers, the number of relief available firefighters falling significantly and fire station closures.
“What will the minister do to make sure that prophecy does not come true?”
Fire Minister Bob Neill said cutting the deficit was the Government’s top priority, but insisted it had protected fire and rescue services by “back-loading” cuts between 2013 and 2015.
It meant authorities would see their “spending power” fall by 2.2% in 2011-12 and 0.5% in 2012-13, claimed the Tory minister.
He said all fire and rescue authorities must carry out their legal duties, adding the Government had increased weighting given to urban areas in its funding formula after talks with fire chiefs.
Mr Neill said the Government had made it clear it had protected the fire service as a frontline service.
But Labour MP John Healey, a former Local Government Minister, asked why fire services in Hampshire, Essex, Dorset, Somerset and Devon were getting increases in Government grant while South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, the West Midlands, Merseyside and Greater Manchester all faced cuts of more than 12%.
Mr Neill said the funding formula was the same as that used by the previous Labour Government apart from the adjustments he had made.
He also said the Government was making progress to find “appropriate” uses for regional fire control centres to get them off the public books after axing the programme ordered by the previous Labour Government - which Tory MP Michael Fallon claimed had wasted at least £630m on the scheme.
Speaking later, Tyne and Wear chief fire officer Iain Bathgate said: “I think the point put by Bob Neill is masking the fact that it is the last two years that everyone in metropolitan fire and rescue services is particularly concerned about.”
Metropolitan areas feared they would again bear the brunt of cuts in the final two years covered by the Government’s spending review having already done so, he said.
The chief fire officer added that could see up to four out of 30 fire engines being taken out of service as well as up to 170 firefighters lose their jobs over the four-year spending review period - albeit it through “natural wastage”.
“We all appreciate that savings have to be made, but we would like to see the distribution of those savings more equitably distributed,” said Mr Bathgate.
