Fire chief pours cold water on closure plan

Thursday 29th May 2008, 2:56PM BST.

JERSEY’S chief fire officer has hit back at suggestions that the Western Station could be closed as part of a multi-million pound States cost-cutting scheme.

Earlier this month the Comptroller and Auditor General suggested 26 measures which could raise £7.8m by 2015.

Among the suggestions were the closure of cultural venues, the cutting of subsidies to fee-paying schools and the closure of services, including the Western Fire Station at St Brelade.

But chief fire officer Mark James said that the loss of the part-time station, whose officers recently tackled a blaze which destroyed a toilet block in St Brelade and provided cover when St Helier firefighters were called to the fatal fire in First Tower, would have a ‘significant impact on the Fire and Rescue Service’.

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