Colin Wilsdon

Presentation by Colin Wilsdon at Community Services Select Committee 11/10/10

Keymer Fire Station closure. Is there anything more to be said?

Seen from a County-wide perspective, there is a certain logic in the proposals. Keymer loses but there are gains elsewhere. Burgess Hill will have increased cover, there will be better facilities in Horsham, the balance of risk versus provision is more even and there will be cash savings. This explains the fact that the consultation responses, county wide, marginally supported the closure of Keymer Fire Station.

Seen from the perspective of Keymer the picture is different.

Consider the Focus Group consultations. In contrast to all the others which broadly supported the policy the 11 members of the Keymer Focus Group opposed it 2:1.

The Mid Sussex Stakeholder Group had just 2 members and their support is not really relevant.

Keymer residents provided the largest number of written objections to the proposals (81) as well as 611 tick box ballot-style forms and a petition of 2,411 signatures. The public meeting in Keymer was the largest held (105 attended) and conspicuous in its outright opposition to the proposals.

This was not drummed up from apathetic members of the community. I can say, as the Local Member I found hardly a single person who supported the proposals. To ask people to support the protest was pushing at an open door.

Why is Keymer Fire Station so important to local people? Clearly there is a concern about risk and the Fire Service admits that closing Keymer will increase risk when the VSC crew is off duty.

Keymer has had a fire station, manned by local retained firefighters, for 118 years. Its crews live locally and are an integral part of the community. It is a really good example of a community taking responsibility for itself. Local people, working in their local fire station, serving the local community. It is the Big Society before the phrase was invented. It is not a new expensive fad. It exists.

This by itself, in today’s economics, is not enough to justify keeping Keymer open. But it it should be considered. And it does not feature at all.

The approach of the Review which is to take a scientific approach, linking Risk to Provision, put the numbers into a computer (I am oversimplifying), optimise and print out the answer is admirable but only deals with part of the problem.

The ‘elephant in the room’ is the social significance of a fire station in its community. Is it possible to take an approach which preserves this without wrecking the other good proposals in the Review.

The Union responses provide a clue. They point out that the cost of putting a VCS crew in Burgess Hill outweighs any saving at Keymer. Retained stations are an economical way of running the service. The Chief Fire Officer has pointed out that only 3% of a firefighter’s time is spent on emergencies. Fire safety education is an important role for a full-time firefighter as well as working with young people. But his is happening already. It is not necessary to move a full-time crew into Burgess Hill to enable this education and training role to continue.

I would add that the activity rates in Keymer are artificially low. It is focussed on activity within its area and discounts standby work and work across the border. Keymer could be used more if there was a will to do so. One example is dealing with Road Traffic Accidents on the A23 which is about two miles from Keymer. Keymer is the nearest Fire Station but in the words of the Fire Service “other appliances are mobilised first on the pre-determined attendance”.

This is just one example of how, if the Fire Service recognised the importance of Keymer Fire Station as a local community facility, it could make more use of it at no extra cost.

To sum up Keymer Fire Station is very important to the community of Keymer and Hassocks, not to mention Ditchling in East Sussex. It could be used more if there was a will to do so. Rather than close Keymer we should abandon the plan for a VCS crew at Burgess Hill and maintain it as a retained fire station which has successfully served Burgess Hill for many years.

I would urge the committee to ask the Fire Service to think again over its plan to close Keymer Fire Station.