Rural communities ‘at risk over
multi-million pound fire cuts’

ISOLATED communities across the region are being put at risk by multi-million pound budget cuts to rural fire and rescue authorities which now receive half the funding of their metropolitan counterparts, a damning report claims today.

The findings, published by the Rural Services Network, have revealed predominantly rural fire and rescue services receive just £17.52 per head of population in Government funding compared with £28.89 per head of population for Greater London and other large urban conurbations.

They also claim North Yorkshire now has one of the lowest funding allocations in the country, despite the extra costs associated with operating in England’s largest rural county.

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With South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service battling £10m budget cuts and a consultation closing this week on West Yorkshire Fire Service plans to axe 200 full-time firefighter posts and close a string of stations, critics claim urgent action is needed to redistribute the money and provide greater cover to some of the region’s most rural areas.

Their warning comes as respected economic think tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, today suggested the era of austerity could last until 2018 as George Osborne is forced to extend spending cuts still further into the next parliament.

The Rural Services Network report claims the average response time to incidents in rural areas is now just over 10 minutes – three minutes longer than in urban areas.

Richard Stevens, brigade secretary for the North Yorkshire Fire Brigades Union, told the Yorkshire Post a proposed closure of a station in Snainton, near Scarborough, as a result of budget cuts could more than double response times to up to 20 minutes to villages in the surrounding area.

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“It is a very worrying time for North Yorkshire,” he said. “We are seeing a reduction in the numbers of firefighters and prevention measures such as community safety days as well. Rural areas area as susceptible to fires as anywhere else.”

The Rural Services Network, a group of more than 200 organisations working together to improve the delivery of services across England, says it is costing fire authorities covering isolated areas around seven per cent more than their urban counterparts to operate stations.

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority – which is dependent on Government for 60 per cent of its funding – is set to decide
next month on plans to close rural stations such as Haworth and Marsden, near Huddersfield, as well as merging stations elsewhere across the country.

A public consultation on 
the plans comes to a close on Friday.

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Haworth Parish Council is meeting tonight over plans to push ahead with a campaign to save the station, perhaps by taking ownership and providing cover themselves.

Chairman John Huxley said: “Every emergency service is important for every member of the community, wherever that community is. There seems to be an imbalance and it is almost as if life here is less important.”

Coun Roger Begy, chair of the Rural Services Network, said: “There is every indication there will be further severe cuts imposed by the Government on local government.”

A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government said: “Despite the need to cut the national deficit, fire and rescue, as a frontline emergency service, has been given funding protection with reductions back-loaded to give more time for sensible savings to be made without impacting on the front-line services offered to communities.

“Funding is fair between different parts of the country.”