A TRAGIC COMEDY OF
ERRORS
Were it not so shocking, Friday’s County Council debate on
fire service cuts would have been comic.
Most people, when adding 3 + 6 + 46, end up with 55, but not
Councillors Lionel Barnard and Jim Rae. They think 3 + 6 + 46 = 3. These are
the figures from their own technical report on the estimated number of extra
deaths if the cuts go ahead and it is 55, not 3! Even the Chief Fire Officer
appears unable to add up. In his Council report he only refers to fire deaths,
but he adds 3 (fire deaths in the home) to 6 (other fire deaths) and also comes
up with a total of 3. Why he got that wrong and ignored the extra deaths in
non-fire emergencies is unclear.
It should be of great concern to everyone that people who
are responsible for millions of pounds of public money cannot do sums that
primary school pupils can manage.
Cllr. Rae had no defence for the cuts, so he repeated false
and misleading figures and resorted to abuse. He even stupidly criticised Cllr.
Michael Jones for speaking on behalf of the people he represents in Crawley.
People who will shortly have the worst fire protection in the County, despite
having the most incidents.
He also tried to pass the buck to the Chief and Deputy Chief
Fire Officers. They have no choice but to work to Cllr. Barnard’s instructions,
within his inadequate budget and with the damaging effects of previous cuts and
neglect. Hundreds of West Sussex firefighters, who will have to risk their lives
with inadequate resources, face public anger for poor response times, and carry
the bodies out, have been ignored. They know these cuts will increase the risk
to themselves and the public.
Cllr. Rae claimed no secrecy, but the consultation document
said nothing about extra deaths, and the technical document only mentioned 3
extra deaths in the home. The other 52 deaths were hidden in a table of figures
that had to be calculated to understand them. Something he clearly failed to
do.
Cllr. Barnard also misled Councillors. He referred to a
non-existent fire authority at Gatwick, and clearly showed he does not
understand his responsibilities. The Airport Fire Service is only responsible
for initial actions at an aircraft accident. The legal responsibility for
providing an adequate response to all incidents at Gatwick is his,
and he is failing in that duty.
‘Prevention is at the heart of everything’ proclaims Cllr
Barnard, yet the number of fire safety audits has fallen from over 3,000 in
2010-11 to less than 1,400 in 2012-13. Worryingly 34% of the premises inspected
were found to be unsatisfactory. His latest cuts will further reduce prevention
work by at least 5,000 hours a year.
He says he has known about Retained Firefighter recruiting
problems since 2003. So what has he done about this serious problem? Sadly, all
he mentioned was a recruiting sign at the end of the road near his home.
Perhaps his prevention initiative will be to add another sign, ‘Don’t have
fires’.
He did not mention that he has deliberately restricted the
maximum number of Retained Firefighters to a level that makes it impossible to
crew all their fire engines 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. He also did not
mention that new contracts he introduced to ‘improve’ availability have actually
made the situation much worse.
He claimed the ‘service is changing away from house fires’,
which is not true. House fires in West Sussex have fluctuated between 491 and
654 for the last 12 years and there were 530 in 2012-13. Very similar to the
1980s when they fluctuated between 502 and 599.
He summed up his callous disregard for the public by saying
that he would make the cuts, even if he did not have to save money. Sacrificing
the lives of West Sussex residents for no reason is an absolute disgrace.
It was very noticeable that Conservative Councillors were
very uncomfortable about being required to support these cuts. None of them
spoke in support of Cllr. Rae, who prepared these savage cuts, and Cllr.
Barnard who approved them.
The only other Conservative Councillor who spoke on the
motion said, “Cutting other County Council Services may have caused some people
inconvenience, hardship, anger and distress, but since my involvement these
will be the first that will actually cost lives.” Councillor Andy Petch
deserves high praise for putting public safety before party politics.
Labour, Liberal Democrat and UKIP Councillors were the only
other honourable Councillors who roundly condemned these dangerous cuts. Many
Conservative Councillors left before this critical vote.
Councillors Lionel Barnard and Jim Rae have deceived the
Council and the public, embarked on reckless cuts, and reduced public and
firefighter safety. They have been aided and abetted by just 26 of their
colleagues who have put party interest before public safety. It is wholly
undemocratic that, based on inaccuracies and deceit, these cuts have been
approved by just 28 out of 71 Councillors.
Friday 17th October 2014 will be remembered
as the darkest and most shameful day in West Sussex County Council’s history.
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