Motion Submitted by the Conservative Group - To Oppose Day Crewing Plans at Sale Fire Station
Councillor Dylan Butt, seconded by Cllr Kaushik Chakraborty brought a motion to council to stop the Mayor of Greater Manchester cutting the hours at Sale Fire Station; please see full motion below
Labour and the Green voted against this motion, leaving residents at risk, and all attempts to send a letter to the Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, who has responsibilities around the governance and budgets relating to Greater Manchester Police and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service." were ignored.
- Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) is proposing to move Sale fire station from a wholetime model to a day crewing model, which means that crews would provide an immediate response during station hours (8.30am to 6pm) and up to a four-minute delayed response during on-call hours (6pm to 8.30am).
- GMFRS claims that this proposal would save £340,000 per year and allow them to invest in other priority areas.
- Sale fire station has low incident levels, with the third-lowest number of night-time life risk incidents and the third-lowest total incidents at night-time in the last three years.
- However, Sale fire station is strategically placed to cover a central area of the Trafford borough and extending to Urmston, Flixton and Partington.
- Sale fire station also serves as a backup for other fire stations in Trafford and neighbouring boroughs in case of emergencies or major incidents.
- The average response time in Sale would increase by 1 minute 10 seconds (from 7 minutes 45 seconds to 8 minutes 55 seconds) and the overall response time across Trafford borough would increase by 20 seconds (from 7 minutes 43 seconds to 8 minutes 3 seconds) if the proposal is implemented.
- The ongoing changes to highways to reduce speed limits and accommodate cyclists will add to response times which have not been factored in.
- These increased response times could have serious consequences for public safety, especially for vulnerable groups such as elderly people, children, people with disabilities, or people living in high-rise buildings.
We believe:
- The proposal to move Sale fire station to a day crewing model is a biased preferred option consultation, that has failed to take into consideration the residents of Partington. Conservatives see this as unacceptable. Basing the proposal on data from the past three Covid years is incomparable with any other years.
- The proposal offers little or no data on the assumption of being able to attend the station from the fire fighters’ home within 4 minutes or how this will be monitored.
- The consultation does not do enough ensure those most affected have their say, Sale’s residents and businesses deserve better.
- The proposal flies in the face of the promise made by Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham to avoid cuts to frontline services in Greater Manchester despite raising the precept tax on residents.
Resolve:
