Firefighting cuts ‘will put public in danger’
Friday 14th August 2009, 2:59PM BST.
If the Business Plan cuts go ahead, the number of firefighters in the Island will be reduced
JERSEY’S Fire and Rescue Service is facing a funding crisis which will force firefighters to slash its cover and operate with inadequate equipment, its union has warned.
In a strongly worded statement, the Fire and Rescue Service Association said that the funding situation was now ‘critical’ and was threatening the lives of Islanders.
It said that if cuts proposed by the Council of Ministers in their 2010 Business Plan went ahead, it would be forced to:
• Reduce the overall number of firefighters.
• Attend some road crashes without potentially life-saving cutting equipment.
• Reduce the use of a ladder platform used to pluck people to safety from high-rise flats.
• Scale back community safety work.
Firefighter Craig Channing, the president of the Fire and Rescue Service Association, said: ‘The Fire and Rescue Service Association believes that the situation has now become critical. We are facing a funding crisis and we cannot continue to operate at these current levels.’
The warning comes just weeks after Home Affairs Minister Ian Le Marquand said that front-line services would not be affected by Business Plan cuts.
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I don’t know much about island politics and I’ve been out of the island for the last 4 years but who voted these t*ss*rs in again? No more reciprocal health agreement for islanders, under funding for ambulances and their staff and now they want to cut fire service funding. Add to that that the police service and their honorary countparts seem more focused on bagging a few extra quid from someone doing 34 in a 30 zone (it’s 2009, install sodding fixed speed cameras and do some real police work) than sorting out all the drunk teenage idiots running around knocking nine bells out of people.
Yet the states seem to find money to waste on ‘surveys’, countless, and terrible I might add, architectural designs for buildings no-one wants and an overspend on a plan for an expensive, unhealthy, unsightly incinerator that again, most object to. Add to all that GST and it’s rises…
I know it’s an island, I know it’s different to somewhere larger like the UK but others wouldn’t stand for it, why do we?
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here we go again, another of the publics emergancy services to be whittled down.
its disgracefull, what is needed is a great fat furze fire next to a politians house , that should enshure some correct funding.
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Rich # 1. I don’t think even the Island politicians know much about Island politics. As you say the States can find money for all sorts of worthless projects, but can’t find sufficient dosh for public safety…..
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Not again what on earth are the states playing at
health, education, ambulance now the fire service!
Something needs to happen how we possibly put up with lack of care and responsibilty from our states members.We are now paying much higher taxes so where is all this money going if it is not being spent on the things that really count! Oh i forgot it is being spent on useless projects enormously high wages for our so called leaders and their minions and on paying back all the millions they have frittered away over the last few years not on the things that we really need that are the essential services!
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There is a simple answer to all these problems.
Increase taxation.
You are one of the wealthiest communities on the face of this earth, the rich have pockets filled to overflowing.
Taxation is peanuts compared with most places.
Come on Jersey. What’s the problem with paying for some necessities as well as all your luxuries?
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So how much is their budget actually being cut, if at all? Is this another case of politicians and senior civil servants deliberately targeting front line services and winding-up the unions in the hope that they will obtain more money?
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Ps. according to the plan Home Affairs expenditure is budgeted to increase!
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I would imagine a review has been done before these cuts have been tabled? If yes then the cuts may well be a great way of saving money. I for one am unaware of the Jersey fireservice being overrun – why pay for something that isn’t needed.
Sometimes it pays to look past the headline.
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To Simonsays
Would you be saying that if it was your family trapped in a building on fire, or a car involved in a collision?? or if one of them had fallen over the many cliffs we have here?? I doubt it very much!
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ps. apparently, one of the cuts is: ” Attend some road crashes without potentially life-saving cutting equipment.”
How is this right? the public pay it’s taxes and expects to be able to call on these services for help!
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To R B Bougourd
I wouldn’t be opposed to paying increased taxes but would like to see the States be more responsible with the taxes they are currently collecting first. They currently fritter away what taxes they do receive on countless reviews, architectural plans for buildings taxpayers neither need nor want, statues (anyone forgetting the steam clock fiasco here?), anyone noticed the increasing numbers of chrome effect bollards springing up in and around town for what purpose (French lane and la Motte Street to name just a couple)? Then there was the Bel Royal “improvements” which are a nightmare for the emergency services, and what’s with the 2 sets of traffic lights within 10 feet of each other at the west end of the tunnel! The list goes on! They need to learn to prioritise the need to spends from the nice to spends and then maybe it will be acceptable to raise taxes to ensure the needs can be covered.
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Why not user pays.
If the fire service is called to an RTC (road traffic collision)make the cause of the accident pay for the call out, after all, if a driver they are insured, or should be.
Same goes for house / industrial fires. If the cause was negligence why should the taxpayer pick up the bill.
It would also be in the insurance companies benefit to have well manned, equipped emergency services to keep claims to a minimum.
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I am always somewhat bemused by such remaks that services have to be cut back, when the States appear to be quite keen to spend money on new bits of kit.
Take the Fire Service, only a couple of years ago did they not buy a new Turntable Ladder, which replaced one that was 15 years old. Such a piece of kit should last a very long time as it is well maintained. I gues the old model was bought up by another brigade who got a smart piece of kit at a fraction of its new cost, while we are left with the latest toy which we are now advised will be restricted in its use !
One often sees vehicles being sold by States Departments at local auction houses which have incredibly low recorded mialages.
Some years ago, I holidayed in the Italian Lakes and up the road form our hotel was a small hospital. Emerency cases were ferried in and out in a well used looking Volkeswagen Van type Ambulance. It was certainly by no means the latest bit of kit on the market !
Perhaps Jersey needs to seriously review the level of Rolls Royce Services it is trying to provide. But dont buy expensive toys at taxpayers expense and then say we cannot afford to run them !
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Not many lawyers here I can see.
“Attend some road crashes without potentially life-saving cutting equipment”.
You would really need to know what percentage of crashes would they be attending and what sort of equipment and how often it is used they will be doing without.
For example: lets say there are 6 fire engines and only 4 are fitted with ladders that can go higher than 8 storeys. What is the risk? That there will be a fire in a very tall building on an occasion when the 4 units that have very long ladders are engaged elsewhere?
Okay, that’s not in the context of road crashes but you get the point.
In all of these matters there is a trade off between cost and service. If we had an infinete amount of money there would be a policeman on every street corner and a fire engine waiting outside every building. Any attempt to reduce costs from that infinite ammount would mean “a reduction in services that could potentially cost lives”.
But you need to know what “potential” means to know whetherthe reduction is material or not.
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Sounds like lunacy to me!
To propose cutting back on ladder and turntable equipment, with the increasing number of high rise buildings appearing in Jersey, as well as sending fire appliances out to road traffic accidents without life saving cutting sequipment.
How would some of these States members feel if they were trapped in a car, at risk of bursting into flames?
Don’t forget you are on a small island, and unlike England, you can’t send for back up from the next town or county.
It would take a very long time to get support from Guernsey or St. Malo, if it is available.
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Back in the early 90′s, a fire broke out in the roof space of Rouge Bouillon primary school. The fire raged through the school in no time and even reached the nearby Teachers’ Centre.
The Police Headquarters also suffered damage and, at one point, even the Fire Station was at risk.
The whole area was under a cloud of thick black smoke and the flames could be seen in parts of the town. Amidst all this, the Firefighters managed to control the blaze and save the surrounding buildings.
The Firefighters put themselves at risk to stop the fire spreading…but who cares?
It took almost six years and a LOT OF MONEY to complete the repair work…but who cares?
Teachers and children struggled “business-as-usual” fashion in building-site conditions until the work was completed…but who cares?
THE ISLANDERS CARE!
States spending cuts are supposed to save money.
But, if ever “ill-equipped” Firefighters are forced to face a similar scenario involving States buildings, the cost to the taxpayer will far outweigh the amount saved by the proposed cuts…and then there is the question of lives.
Sometimes using common sense saves money in the long run.
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