Campaigners march against proposed fire service cuts
Campaigners in Lincoln are to march this weekend in protest to cuts which could be made to fire services in the county.
Campaigners in Lincoln are to march this weekend in protest to cuts which could be made to fire services in the county.
Campaigners in Lincoln are to march this weekend in protest to cuts which could be made to fire services in the county.
The Defend Our Fire Services march will start at St Martin's Square at the top of the High Street on Saturday 31 January from 11.30am.
Our campaign seeks to increase public awareness of how the proposed cuts to our Fire and Rescue services will impact on response times and coverage. The service has already experienced a significant reduction to its funding and consequently a further £1.23 million of cuts will have devastating affects for both fire fighters and the public. The campaign has developed real momentum so far and over 1000 people have already signed our petition. However, we still need many more signatures and we're calling on everyone who values their local fire services to march with us on Saturday.
The Fire Brigade Union in Lincolnshire have praised the campaign saying it shows the strength of community support for the fire service:
We thank all members of the public who have thrown themselves into this campaign. It shows how strongly the local community feels about cuts to their fire service.
The chief fire officer for Lincolnshire has argued that the proposals will enable the service to save money without reducing the service:
Obviously any reduction to the fire service is regrettable; however, we are confident that the proposals being consulted on allow us to achieve the required savings while having the least impact on the overall level of service provided. Since 2010, we have increased the number of fire engines crewed by whole-time firefighters on a 24 hour basis from two to nine, and on average our on-call firefighters across the county train for an extra hour each week. During this time there has been no reduction in the number of fire engines or fire stations and we have been able to make significant investments in new appliances and equipment, to allow our firefighters to continue to deliver a first class fire and rescue service for Lincolnshire.
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