Conservative County Councillors put West Sussex residents in greater danger

Longer waits for less effective response

When your life or property is in danger, you may wonder why help is taking longer to arrive. The simple answer is that firefighters are coming as quickly as possible but are now increasingly likely to be coming from further away.

When they arrive, you may also wonder why they take longer to carry out rescues and firefighting. The answer is that, instead of five or six firefighters on a fire engine, there will now usually be just four. When a minimum of five firefighters are required to safely and effectively deal with most incidents, and building fires need at least nine firefighters, more time is lost waiting for back up crews from fire stations even further away.  

None of this is the fault of firefighters, so who is to blame?

The answer is simple, Conservative County Councillors.

Population and incidents up, resources down

Since 1975, the County’s population has increased by nearly 40%, and the fire & rescue service is attending over 50% more incidents each year. Yet the Conservatives have made significant cuts to our fire & rescue service, leaving it slower and less effective. They went ahead with cuts even though their modelling said there would be increased loss of life and increased property damage as a result.

Since 2010, the Conservatives have:

Closed 4 fire stations

Cut a quarter of frontline fire engines &

now provide 231 fewer firefighters (a third less)

 Inadequate crewing can see up to three quarters of frontline fire engines unavailable

You may feel reassured when you see a fire engine in your nearest fire station, but it is useless without firefighters. Too often, when you need help, it will sit idle in the fire station because Conservative County Councillors don’t ensure there are enough firefighters available to crew it.

There are now only 35 frontline fire engines in West Sussex, there were 46, and during the day up to two thirds may not be available. At night, three quarters of the County’s fire engines depend on retained (on call) firefighters who are not always available.

Assets worth up to £10 million can sit idle during emergencies for lack of firefighters

Specialist rescue only available during the day

The Conservatives have also stopped providing 24 hour availability of the Technical Rescue Unit. This specialist team have additional training to carry out rescues from the most extreme situations, but they are now only available from 7 am to 7 pm. Conservative County Councillors will tell you that neighbouring fire & rescue services will come to your aid at night, but they don’t specify how far they will need to travel and how much longer your life will be in danger.

Conservatives are neglecting those in extreme danger at night

Who to vote for on May 7th

It is important not to be distracted by national government performance and national issues, as the only election that matters for anyone concerned about having an effective fire & rescue service is the County Council election. In my experience, how politicians have performed is usually a good indication of how they will perform in future. 

So, it will be no surprise that I think the Conservatives have failed the residents of West Sussex, so who has not?

Both Labour and Liberal Democrat County Councillors have campaigned to stop the Conservative fire & rescue service cuts and have worked hard to highlight the disastrous consequences of those cuts. Sadly, the response from the Conservatives has simply been to withhold information, including unlawful refusals of freedom of information requests, to cut performance standards to hide the consequences of their cuts and mismanagement, and to make false claims. Cuts are not 'improvements'.

Only Labour & Liberal Democrat County Councillors have campaigned to save our fire & rescue service and to support our firefighters