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Emergency Planning Chair Warns Over Fire Service Cuts Threat
Barry Coppinger the chair of the joint Cleveland Emergency Planning Committee has made the following statement on behalf of the committee:
The Chair of the body which oversees emergency planning in the area has today expressed ‘grave concerns’ over the threat of major cutbacks in the funding for Cleveland Fire Brigade. Councillor Barry Coppinger, who Chairs the Joint Cleveland Emergency Planning Committee, pledged total support for the Brigade and the Fire Authority in its campaign to prevent changes in the financing arrangements for fire services which it’s feared could leave Cleveland facing a shortfall of over £3million in the next three years. The situation is so serious that the Fire Service has now beginning consultations over a range of cutbacks which could include closing the Brigade’s Marine Fire Station, cutting back on crewing numbers and scrapping station-based Community Safety Teams. Said Councillor Coppinger “As we have made clear in our recent opposition to proposals which could see ambulance control services being moved out of the area, we must have high-quality emergency services right across the board because we need them. “It would be entirely unacceptable if changes in the funding arrangements for the fire service meant that the Cleveland Brigade—which has to operate in an area with one of the highest concentration of high risk sites in the country—lost out in order to provide more money for brigades serving more rural parts of the country." “I will certainly be expressing the concerns on behalf of the Joint Emergency Planning Committee to both the appropriate Ministers and our local MPs whom I am sure will be deeply concerned by the prospect of any reduction in the ability of the Brigade to protect life and property." “Our Emergency Planning arrangements in Cleveland are widely recognised as amongst the best in the country—and at that the heart of those arrangements has to be a fire service with the personnel, the equipment, the expertise and the resources to be able to both work with industry and the public to reduce risks…and tackle incidents when they do occur.”
NOTE FOR EDITORS:
The Joint Emergency Planning Committee is drawn from executive members
from the four Cleveland councils of Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Stockton
and Redcar & Cleveland and oversees the work of the Cleveland Emergency
Planning Unit, which is funded by the four authorities
Article added 4/12/07
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