Forum Topic

Acton Firestation not going anywhere

Over the autumn Labour and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) have been trying to get some traction out of firestation closures in London.  Locally Labour figures have been scaremongering about the possible closure of Acton fire station.  Today it has been confirmed that this will not happen.  The fire brigade gives some interesting background that was reflected in the BBC story but not in the Evening Standard piece by Ross Lydall.  London Fire Brigade say: The savings come against a backdrop of the Brigade: Attending half as many fires compared to a decade ago A third fewer house fires than a decade ago Almost a third fewer incidents altogetherThe Labour/FBU position is essentially that any change to the LFB estate is a disaster regardless of how much work there is to do.  This really is ridiculous.  I remember working with LFB in 2003/4.  It was obvious then that they were failing to match resources with demand and that this was wasting money.  Long-standing Spanish practices resulted in mainly (men) sleeping in firestations overnight in locations where there were known to be no fires at night.  It is only the deficit crisis that has caused LFB to finally grasp this nettle.  The highly political and leftwing FBU will fight these changes tooth and nail.  Labour will try to dramatise the ending of Spanish practices that are ripping off Londoners as dangerous cuts when they are no such thing.

Phil Taylor ● 4996d10 Comments

What about the police station while you are on?

Sara Nathan ● 4995d

Puzzled by your sentence:"Long-standing Spanish practices resulted in mainly (men) sleeping in firestations overnight in locations where there were known to be no fires at night."How can it be "known"? Surely a fire can break out anywhere, anytime. Which is why the crew sleep at the station.

Peter Millman ● 4995d

What are these so called "Spanish" practices? I for one, am very glad that Acton is keeping its fire station. Good news for a change.

Chris Hurley ● 4995d

Yes Peter, but if you are asking people to risk their lives and spending real money you have to analyse the actual occurrence of fires and deploy your resources to meet the threat patterns you observe.  For years LFB have known that they were employing 100s of men to sleep through the night on 16 hours night shifts in firestations with bedrooms in Central London where typically there are very few fires.  If fires do occur it is easy to get equipment in at night and there is little risk to life.  The FBU have fought tooth and nail against removing beds from firestations, changing shift patterns to match the work and moving fire engines to where the fires happen.

Phil Taylor ● 4995d

It is great about Acton fire station which was always an unlikely closure as it covers a suburban area where there are night time risks of domestic fires and risks to life.  I don't often like the Mail but this article covers a lot of the ground on work practices, etc:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1324092/Fire-Brigades-Union-defends-jaw-dropping-perks-gross-inefficiencies.html

Phil Taylor ● 4995d

All I have to say Phil, is I for one am glad that we have the Fire Brigade we have , brave men to a fault especially when helicopters fly into cranes!!!!! What would we do without them

Diana Oneill ● 4990d

It's hardly scaremongering when Acton fire station was in fact on a list of possible closures, as noted by the BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19981096It seems that campaigning has managed to get those in charge to think again, and revise the list down to twelve closures rather than 17 - and, importantly for local residents, saving Acton fire station.Thanks then should go to Labour and the FBU for campaigning to keep us safe.

Josh Blacker ● 4990d

Josh,People should know that you are one of the local Labour activist team and chairman of the Acton Central branch.  Acton was never a likely closure target as it was serving a residential area.  For many years LFB has had too many men sleeping through the night in comfy beds near commercial districts which rarely have fires at night.  The FBU has been fighting hard to keep these men safe in their beds for at least a decade.  The BBC article you link to makes it clear that the list with Acton on it was a leak so not a final decision, just a working document.  Paul Embery, the Fire Brigades Union's regional secretary for London is quoted as saying: "We think this is potentially the biggest threat that the London Fire Brigade is facing since the days of the Luftwaffe."  Hysterical nonsense.  You don't comment on whether a service that is doing half of the work it was ten years ago can be trimmed by much, much less than that.  The big problem that Labour has to face is how can we match the taxes we raise to the money government spends.  Clearly you are on the fantasy side of the debate.  Like most of the rest of the Labour party.

Phil Taylor ● 4989d

Why is the fire service doing half the work it was ten years ago?

Sara Nathan ● 4989d

Sara,According to LFB figures the number of fires in London has gone down 51% from 2001 to 2011, see here:http://philtaylor.org.uk/2013/01/we-have-half-the-fires-but-the-libdems-see-a-political-opportunity/They are doing literally half the work.  This is driven by fire regs and risk based inspections really driving down commercial property fires considerably.  Domestic fires have not gone down quite so much (26%) which is why LFB are trying to beef up manning of fire stations in suburban areas and get firemen out of commercial areas where fires are comparatively rarer and do not so directly threaten life.  The FBU has been fighting these moves for at least a decade.  Overall incidents are down 39% but these include false alarms and non-emergency calls which are not so much work so the best metric for the amount of work the LFB does is fires overall which have halved.  The FBU like the phrase fire-fighter because it conveys lots of things the public admires.  The most valuable thing that firepeople do is to persuade people to fit smoke detectors and not to smoke in bed.  With fire, prevention is so much better than cure.  I admire the fire service and I am glad that Ealing's firestations will remain close to the suburbs that require a better service.  The Labour party and the FBU are being totally misleading about LFB's plans.  Yes, they do deliver financial savings but far smaller savings than the reduction in workload that LFB undertakes.  LFB are matching resources to the actual risk profile of today not keeping small firestations in the wrong place.

Phil Taylor ● 4989d