Fire cover shake-up in historic city sparks row over extra costs

An outline planning application for a new station on the site of the former coach park at a one-acre site in Kent Street, near the Barbican theatre, has been submitted to York Council.

The scheme involves fire engine parking bays, a training tower, an office building with community, meeting and rest rooms and accommodation, a training tower and an exercise yard.

It is likely to cost somewhere in the region of £3m to £4.5m.

Michael Davies, contracts manager for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority said:

“We have submitted a planning application for a new station and are now awaiting a decision on it.

“It is due to be determined by the council by September 23.

“If it gets the go-ahead and a full planning application is successful then we would hope for work to start in the new year with a completion date of January to March 2013 – it’s an 18 months construction project.”

A spokesman for the authority said it was essential that the outdated fire station in Clifford Street was replaced with a new, purpose-built one several hundred yards away.”

But not everyone is happy including firefighters and conservation watchdogs who have reservations about the most extensive overhaul of York’s emergency cover in more than a decade.

York Civic Trust and Age UK fear that York’s famous medieval buildings may not be afforded sufficient protection under the new plans.

Fire Brigade’s Union North Yorkshire chairman Steve Howley, is fearful that the plans do not take adequate account of the city’s needs and has waged a campaign against them for several years.

He said: “We have been involved in a long campaign against these plans from the outset.

“We want the authority to rethink its position on this.

“The strength of feeling from those who work at York is that it is a bad move. It will worsen the fire cover in the centre of York.

“They want to shut down Clifford Street and rebuilt it at Kent Street and it just doesn’t make sense.

“At such a time of great austerity it doesn’t make financial sense to spend £4.5m on building a new station when the Clifford Street site could be refurbished for £1.5m.

“Financially it just doesn’t stack up.

“From a risk point of view the quality of service for the people in the centre of York and south east of the city is going to be a lot poorer.

“Basically we have the busiest station in North Yorkshire (Clifford St) being downgraded to a one pump station and the station doing 230 calls a year which works very effectively as a retained station (Huntingdon) which fits in the risk profile of other retained stations within the county is now being upgraded to a two-pump station.

“We have run a campaign over the last couple of years opposing this and we will continue our campaign with the people of York.”

But an authority spokesman said it was “ridiculous” to talk about refurbishing Clifford Street which was flooded several years ago.

He said: “Can you imagine what a public outcry there would be if that was to happen?

“The people who have been involved in this decision have more than 25 years experience individually.

“At the moment firefighters can’t train at Clifford Street and we are wanting to build a brand new station which will be purpose-built and where that and much more can happen.

“We are trying to improve the cover for the people at York and that can’t be done at Clifford Street which is several decades-old,” the spokesman added.