Balmossie Fire Station Under Threat
Members of the Tayside Fire and Rescue Board reading their papers for the Fire Board meeting in Forfar next Monday morning, may be experiencing a sense of deja vu. On their agenda is the approval of a public consultation process for 'Towards a Safer Tayside 2010/2011'. Included in recommendations for 2010/11 are proposals to downgrade Balmossie Fire Station which are nearly identical with those that were consulted on extensively and voted down by the Fire Board in March of this year. When I raised this issue with the media last week, I had hoped that good sense would have prevailed in setting the agenda for the next Tayside Fire and Rescue Board meeting. My constituents in Broughty Ferry will be very disappointed. They will be forgiven for thinking that the consultation proposed is a sham. Last year a record number of people responded to the proposed Fire and Rescue Strategy and in Broughty Ferry more than 600 people objected to that part of the strategy that was linked to downgrading services based at Balmossie Fire Station. Not only were the overwhelming majority of respondents unconvinced but the proposals did not convince members of the Fire and Rescue Board either. On 30 March 2009, Councillors on the Fire and Rescue Board voted by twelve votes to five to drop that part of the strategy. If the consultation last year was entered into genuinely and respectfully, how can so many voices be ignored? Why is the Fire Master, Stephen Hunter, so obdurate that he cannot take no for an answer from the public and the Fire and Rescue Board?"
Members of the Tayside Fire and Rescue Board reading their papers for the Fire Board meeting in Forfar next Monday morning, may be experiencing a sense of deja vu. On their agenda is the approval of a public consultation process for 'Towards a Safer Tayside 2010/2011'. Included in recommendations for 2010/11 are proposals to downgrade Balmossie Fire Station which are nearly identical with those that were consulted on extensively and voted down by the Fire Board in March of this year. When I raised this issue with the media last week, I had hoped that good sense would have prevailed in setting the agenda for the next Tayside Fire and Rescue Board meeting. My constituents in Broughty Ferry will be very disappointed. They will be forgiven for thinking that the consultation proposed is a sham. Last year a record number of people responded to the proposed Fire and Rescue Strategy and in Broughty Ferry more than 600 people objected to that part of the strategy that was linked to downgrading services based at Balmossie Fire Station. Not only were the overwhelming majority of respondents unconvinced but the proposals did not convince members of the Fire and Rescue Board either. On 30 March 2009, Councillors on the Fire and Rescue Board voted by twelve votes to five to drop that part of the strategy. If the consultation last year was entered into genuinely and respectfully, how can so many voices be ignored? Why is the Fire Master, Stephen Hunter, so obdurate that he cannot take no for an answer from the public and the Fire and Rescue Board?"
