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Calls to ensure fire cover caters for historic city’s rapid growth
FIRE chiefs have allayed concerns that a controversial relocation to a new multi-million pound base will not provide adequate emergency cover for one of Britain’s most rapidly expanding cities.
Detailed blueprints to move crews from York’s main city centre base to the new station in Kent Street have been drawn up over the last six months and are due to be given the go-ahead by councillors next week.
But the biggest shake-up of York’s fire cover in recent years has sparked grave fears that the new station, earmarked for a site behind The Barbican venue, will not be sufficient to cater for the city’s rapidly expanding population.
York was named last year as the UK’s second-fastest growing city after Milton Keynes and its population has now broken the 200,000 mark.
Major housing developments already include schemes at Derwenthorpe and Germany Beck as well as the planned regeneration of one of England’s largest brownfield sites, York Central, around the railway station.
Heritage champions and one of York’s MPs have raised fears that the city’s world-famous heritage will be put at risk unless adequate fire cover is provided. The director of York Civic Trust, Peter Brown, has claimed a computer modelling system used to draw up the restructuring was of “limited use”, and raised concerns about whether medieval buildings would be afforded adequate protection.
Mr Brown said: “We need to make sure that there is the flexibility at the new station to provide additional cover if necessary.
“The concerns that the civic trust has raised in the past have not gone away, and we are not alone in voicing them.
“I would urge councillors to make sure that there is sufficient fire cover outlined in the proposals before approving the plans, as it is vital we protect the city’s heritage.”
York Central MP Hugh Bayley met with North Yorkshire’s Chief Fire Officer, Nigel Hutchinson, to discuss the proposals over fears that cover could be reduced before outline planning permission for the Kent Street station was granted in September last year.
York Council’s East Area Planning Sub-Committee will meet on Thursday to discuss the detailed plans for the lay-out of the fire station, which have been recommended for approval by planning officers.
But Mr Bayley said: “York is growing rapidly and every effort needs to be made to provide adequate fire cover throughout the city centre and beyond.”
However, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Area Manager Owen Hayward, who has overseen the £3.8m restructuring project, maintained the new station will provide adequate emergency cover.
Mr Hayward said: “We are aware that York is a fast growing city, but we have taken every precaution we can to ensure that the new station will provide the necessary cover.
“We have future-proofed the plans in every way that we can, and we have looked ahead to provide cover for the next 20 years to cater for the expansion of the city.”
The new station is due to house an appliance and a water rescue unit, although a third bay is being built to accommodate a second fire engine.
The foundations of the building will be built to ensure a fourth bay can also be added to house another appliance to provide additional cover in the future.
If the detailed plans for the new station are approved, about half of the 52 firefighters at the current city centre base in Clifford Street will be relocated to Kent Street.
The remaining crews will move to Huntington to provide cover for housing schemes and growth planned for the northern edge of the city.
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority agreed in June last year to move one of two appliances currently based at Clifford Street to Huntington along with the aerial ladder platform.
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