Residents urged to have say on fire cuts at final meeting

The meeting will be held in Darnall, where the local fire station is proposed to be merged with another station at Mansfield Road, and was added to the original list of six meetings due to public demand.

Fire service chiefs launched the consultation on its plans to save money in order to deal with Government funding cuts of up to £10m by 2015.

The proposals currently out to consultation, together with other internal staffing changes, will save around £4m per year following a one-off investment of £3.65m, including two new fire stations.

The plans involve building a new full-time fire station near to the Sheffield Parkway, to replace Darnall and Mansfield Road fire stations.

A new full-time fire station will also be built at Birley, to enable the closure of the part-time fire station at Mosborough.

Royston fire station in Barnsley would close, while retained crews would be moved out of Edlington in Doncaster.

Firefighter crewing systems would also be changed across a range of stations, starting with Lowedges, though a fire service spokesman said this would have “no effect on emergency response times.”

The spokesman added: “The Close Proximity Crewing model would save £400,000 per station, per year.

“If it is not possible to introduce Close Proximity Crewing, the alternative Day Crewing model would produce similar savings – but with a negative impact on night-time response times.”

Management and administration costs are also being cut by 25 per cent.

The public consultation document can be viewed on the service’s website. Next Thursday’s meeting begins at 7pm at The Church of Christ in Station Road, Darnall.