Beatles Fans Everywhere, Save The Penny Lane Fireman

" In Penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass"...and time is running out. Not only are the UK government cutting funds to the essential Fire and Rescue Services in communities all across the country, the first to go in Liverpool will be one of the most famous and important.

The fireman who appears on horseback in the Penny Lane promotional film worked Allerton Fire Station, and the station is directly referenced in the song:

"The fire station was a bit of poetic licence; there's a fire station about half a mile down the road, not actually in Penny Lane, but we needed a third verse so we took that and I was very pleased with the line 'It's a clean machine'. I still like that phrase, you occasionally hit a lucky little phrase and it becomes more than a phrase. So the banker and the barber shop and the fire station were all real locations." Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now, B Miles)

The Beatles tours that run in the city all take in the fire station as they entertain tourists from every corner of the world. If the station is closed it is very likely that the land will be sold off to private interests and it will be demolished. If and when this happens the city and Beatles fans everywhere will lose an important heritage site.

Perhaps worse than this is the wanton disregard for the safety of the people who live here displayed by central government. In a recent consultation about the proposed closure a campaigning fire-fighter who had met with Eric Pickles and Sir Bob Kerslake to try and plead the case for Liverpool's Fire and Rescue Service and this station in particular stated:

"..it's quite clear that the people who make these decisions couldn't care less if the people of South Liverpool die in their beds because of delayed response times."

This is supposed to be a civilised country waging a war on dangerous extremists in order to keep people safe in their beds. If there is a terror attack, there won't be sufficient emergency services to cope with it. When this issue was raised at the same consultation the chief officer nodded in agreement, and then shrugged his shoulders in a hopeless gesture. It was also stated at the consultation that this will be the first of a number of station closures on Merseyside. Ten stations were closed in the Greater London area last year and this has already cost lives. Let's draw the line here, these are essential services which we've already paid for through our taxes.

Please help keep the 'clean machine' running and save lives in the heart of the Beatles home town. Please sign.