Firefighters have demanded the Scottish Government stops slashing their budget, as emergency services were stretched to near breaking point by Storm Desmond.
From 2011 to 2015 the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has seen a reduction of 449 firefighters which equates to 6% of the workforce leading to fire engines being unavailable in parts of Scotland. The Fire Brigades Union said the cutbacks are obstructing the service’s ability to respond to emergency calls.
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “Firefighters are responding to this emergency as they have been every time such storms and floods have hit the UK.
“The Scottish Government told us that shifting to the single fire and rescue service would protect front-line services but since then we have seen further cuts and job losses. This is undermining our ability to respond to challenges on this scale.”
Chris McGlone, FBU executive council member for Scotland, added: “Further cuts will simply undermine our ability to deal with everyday emergencies, as well as the large-scale challenges we see when storms and floods hit.”
Paul Wheelhouse, minister for community safety and legal affairs, said: “Since the launch of SFRS there has not been a single incident of firefighters responding to an incident without the necessary resources and not a single fire station has been closed by SFRS management the SFRS has worked hard to maintain front-line outcomes with no impact on the service received by the public.
“This is in spite of HM Treasury repeatedly rejecting our requests that the SFRS should be able to recover VAT, which means SFRS is the only fire service in the UK unable to recover VAT and is liable to an annual cost that now exceeds £10 million per annum with consequences for ongoing investment and resourcing within the service.”