Who on Earth is Richard Burrett trying to kid when he says,
"they are savings, they are not cuts". At the last County Council
meeting Richard Burrett and his Conservative cronies voted against a motion to
stop cuts to the fire service.
His administration is cutting five fire engines in the County next year, even though the Council's own report shows that this will mean longer response times, more property damage and more deaths. They are also cutting the number of firefighters, which will mean more cases of fire engines not being available, or having to respond with insufficient crews to carry out rescues.
All this after changes they have made since 2010, which include cutting 3 fire stations and 6 fire engines. Those changes resulted in longer response times and deteriorating availability of retained (on call) crewed fire engines. Despite claims of more prevention work, fire deaths have increased in West Sussex every year since 2008/09.
You may drive past your local fire station and see a modern fire engine waiting to respond, but if you have an emergency there is no guarantee it will come to your aid. For example the retained crewed fire engine in East Wittering was available for 89% of the time in 2012/13, but last year was only available 47% of the time. For more than half the year people in the area had to wait for help from Chichester or from further afield.
Do not be fooled, this Conservative administration is doing their Conservative Government's bidding and cutting essential services. Party interests are taking priority over the welfare of West Sussex residents and their cuts will even cost some West Sussex residents their lives.
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