Shropshire fire chiefs unhappy over new budget cut
Shropshire fire chiefs today revealed their "disappointment" that fire budgets had not been protected by the Government.
Chancellor George Osborne announced on Wednesday that fire and rescue budgets would be cut by 7.5 per cent as part of the latest spending review.
The settlement includes a £30 million fund to encourage greater collaboration between the fire service and other emergency services.
It has sparked warnings from the Fire Brigades Union that services will be "cut through bone" and that the UK's capacity to cope with large emergencies was under "serious threat".
Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service, which is facing annual cuts of £1.6 million from its budget, has already saved around £3.2 million since austerity measures were introduced.
The service is looking into 60 options to reduce budgets which include losing a fire engine in either Shrewsbury or Telford or closing on-call fire stations in Baschurch, Prees, Hodnet and Clun.
John Redmond, the incoming chief fire officer for Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service, said: "We are obviously disappointed that the Government haven't ring-fenced the fire and rescue budgets like some of the other departments have been but we already have plans in place to reduce budgets in the future and will continue to focus on this.
"It remains a serious issue for us and we will need to look at our frontline and an impact assessment is currently being carried out on 60 different elements, one of which is the closure of fire stations."
General secretary of the Fire Brigades Union Matt Wrack said: "After three years of station closures, 3,600 job losses and a dangerous slowing of response times, these new attacks to fire services will start to cut through bone."
