Celebrities come out against fire station closures

As an Islington resident who would prefer my fellow Islington residents to remain unburnt, this cost-cutting plan worries me. There are some things that should never be run for profit, and the fire service is one of them. I think people feel this in their bones, and are grateful for the reassurance a not-for-profit fire service gives them.

Of course it's good news that the number of fires is decreasing. But that's no

reason to cut back on cover. By that logic, as John O'Farrell says, we should all save money by not buying smoke alarms.

It's easy to feel helpless in the face of the cuts but it is possible to fight back... Cuts to the Fire Service put lives at risk... Let's start by saving Clerkenwell Fire Station, and the hundreds of Fire Service jobs under threat across London. I don't doubt that the banks in the City, that did so much to land the country in the financial state it's in, have state of the art alarms and sprinkler systems. But the same can't be said for thethousands of flats throughout the Borough of Islington, where the extra waiting time for a Fire Engine to arrive will eventually lead to a tragedy.

As a one time resident, and recently returned business user, I’m extremely unhappy at the proposed closure of Clerkenwell Fire station. Apart from anything else, the prospect of losing forty odd years worth of carefully stored drum kits due to lack of fire fighting support, fills me with alarm.