1,000 signatures reached
To: Roger Hirst - Essex police and crime commissioner
Save the South Woodham Ferrers Fire Service
We are calling for a reversal of the decision to downgrade the South Woodham Ferrers Fire Service from being crewed 24/7 by our full time day crew to 'On-Call' (retained). This is not an attack on the great job that on-call Firefighters facilitate or Essex Fire and Rescue.
We simply wish for current levels of cover to be protected and upheld, we do not want the increase to response times and potential risk of life that will come with the downgrade.
We simply wish for current levels of cover to be protected and upheld, we do not want the increase to response times and potential risk of life that will come with the downgrade.
Why is this important?
The South Woodham Ferrers Fire Service is the final 'Full Time Day Crew' operating within the Dengie Peninsula.
With the downgrade from 'Full Time Day Crew' to 'On-call', we will likely see a drop in both availability and vital response times based off of current trends for the area.
The Burnham-On-Crouch Fire Station facilitates an 'on-call' Service who in 2017 have been unavailable 39% of the time. Similarly, Tillingham 'on-call' Fire Service is unavailable 17% of the time. This is all due to a lack of available on-call firefighters during times of incident or emergency, and when these 'on-call' Stations are without adequate cover, it is currently the South Woodham 'Day Crew' who travel out to ensure the Stations are manned. Again, this is not an attack on 'on-call' Fire Stations, just highlighting the frequent levels of unavailability in comparison to Full Time in respect to our area (Dengie).
A massive 44% of the South Woodham Ferrers Firefighter's activty is in neighbouring towns, highlighting how they currently plug the shortfall in required 'on-call' Firefighter cover. Only last month on 21/07/2017 our Firefighters had to race to Burnham-On-Crouch in order to free two people who'd been trapped in a car following an accident.
So not only are we going to adopt the same model that currently sees select Dengie Stations regularly unmanned, but lose the Fire Service that is currently filling the gap in neighbouring town services. Despite our efforts, we have currently failed to obtain any detailed risk assessment carried out pertaining specifically to this downgrade.
You should also know that in 2017, 64% of incidents across the Maldon district are responded to within 15 minutes. This has decreased from 72% the year before, and is far worse than the Essex average.
All of the information above was obtained via the Freedom of Information Act. If anything we have stated is incorrect then we are happy to amend.
This is illogical and dangerous, with us potentially sleepwalking into disaster.
With the downgrade from 'Full Time Day Crew' to 'On-call', we will likely see a drop in both availability and vital response times based off of current trends for the area.
The Burnham-On-Crouch Fire Station facilitates an 'on-call' Service who in 2017 have been unavailable 39% of the time. Similarly, Tillingham 'on-call' Fire Service is unavailable 17% of the time. This is all due to a lack of available on-call firefighters during times of incident or emergency, and when these 'on-call' Stations are without adequate cover, it is currently the South Woodham 'Day Crew' who travel out to ensure the Stations are manned. Again, this is not an attack on 'on-call' Fire Stations, just highlighting the frequent levels of unavailability in comparison to Full Time in respect to our area (Dengie).
A massive 44% of the South Woodham Ferrers Firefighter's activty is in neighbouring towns, highlighting how they currently plug the shortfall in required 'on-call' Firefighter cover. Only last month on 21/07/2017 our Firefighters had to race to Burnham-On-Crouch in order to free two people who'd been trapped in a car following an accident.
So not only are we going to adopt the same model that currently sees select Dengie Stations regularly unmanned, but lose the Fire Service that is currently filling the gap in neighbouring town services. Despite our efforts, we have currently failed to obtain any detailed risk assessment carried out pertaining specifically to this downgrade.
You should also know that in 2017, 64% of incidents across the Maldon district are responded to within 15 minutes. This has decreased from 72% the year before, and is far worse than the Essex average.
All of the information above was obtained via the Freedom of Information Act. If anything we have stated is incorrect then we are happy to amend.
This is illogical and dangerous, with us potentially sleepwalking into disaster.
