An Angus councillor has predicted that the Balmossie fire station’s full-time overnight staffing will not survive long into the life of the new all-Scotland fire service next year. He even says it would not surprise him if the whole station is shut.
David Fairweather was commenting on the publication of annual figures by Tayside Fire and Rescue showing that the station between Broughty Ferry and Monifieth tackled only 22 primary fires between 6pm and 8am.
The statistics gave further confirmation of Balmossie’s status as Tayside’s quietest full-time fire station a situation that has already attracted criticism from the Accounts Commission and some local politicians.
Twenty-two primary fires less than two a month is a level of activity that in many other parts of Scotland would be recorded by part-time stations where crews are called out as and when they are needed.
The figures are made up from 15 outbreaks in houses, four in non-domestic buildings, two in vehicles and one other in the year from April 2011 to March 2012.
Balmossie has been returning similar figures for years and Tayside’s former chief fire officer Stephen Hunter tried to downgrade it from full to part-time overnight cover.
The move would have allowed the Forfar station which is busy with fires and road accidents to be upgraded to full-time status. However, the issue became political and the proposal was narrowly defeated by the Tayside Fire and Rescue Board.
Earlier this year the Accounts Commission said members of the board had ignored ”compelling evidence” with Balmossie and had failed to live up to their responsibility to look after public funds.
In a review of the fire service to see if it was delivering best value, it considered the Balmossie situation and its report said the downgrading proposal would have better aligned £500,000 of resources.
Commission chairman John Baillie said councillors on the fire board ”need to do more to scrutinise and challenge the service’s performance and help shape its strategy and use of resources”.
Mr Fairweather, an independent member who serves on the fire board, acknowledged the latest figures and said: ”I do not think the new all-Scotland service will be able to sustain a full-time night crew at Balmossie.
”I always felt the last chief fire officer got it right on Balmossie but the station kept its full-time night shift for political reasons because there was an election coming up.
”If Balmossie had been downgraded at night, important savings would have been released to benefit Angus and Forfar would have got the full-time service that it needs. Sadly it all got political and the SNP with some Labour support saw that it didn’t happen.
”The board is supposed to be non-political and as an independent I am not aligned to any party but look at issues on their merits.”