Fire Service RSS feed for the Fire Service tag
found 38 stories.
News
Jane Tyler B'ham Mail 15 Feb 11
West Midlands fire chiefs said they had been “shafted” by the Government in the spending cuts. The service will lose £6.7 million from its budget this year – but bosses warned that in three years’ time its budget could shrink by as much as £30 million.
At a meeting of the fire authority yesterday, members were told they would be able to find this year’s savings without any increase in its share of the council tax and through natural wastage and efficiencies…
News
Express & Star 14 Feb 11
Eight hundred firefighters could lose their jobs, 16 fire stations close and 30 fire engines taken off the roads in the West Midlands if anticipated cuts come into force, it was claimed today.
The government grant that makes up about 70 per cent of West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority’s annual budget has been slashed by £10.164m, or 12.5 per cent, over two years from 2011 to 2013.
But the fire authority’s boss today predicted this could rise to a total cut of between 37 and 40 per cent…
News
BBC News 20 Dec 10
A multi-million-pound scheme to replace 46 fire control centres in England with nine regional sites will be scrapped, the government has said. The Firecontrol project has suffered a series of delays and increased costs since it was announced by the Labour government several years ago.
Fire Minister Bob Neill said agreement had been reached with main contractor Cassidian to end the project. The Fire Brigades Union welcomed the decision as “long overdue”…
News
Jane Tyler B'ham Mail 17 Dec 10
West Midlands Fire Service has warned it may have to slash jobs in 2012 as it struggles to balance the books after tougher than expected Government spending cuts.
The brigade will lose £6.7 million from its budget next year but pledged to find the savings through natural wastage. But the following year, 2012/13, it will lose even more money and fire chiefs admitted they could not rule out redundancies then…
News
Express & Star 23 Nov 10
A wannabe policeman fitted blue flashing lights to his Ford Focus and pulled drivers over on West Midlands roads after failing to get a job in the force, a court heard.
Daniel Bunce was facing jail today after a judge told him impersonating a policeman was “very serious”.
The 20-year-old from Tipton bought the lights after his application to get a legitimate job in the police was turned down…
News
Adam Aspinall Mercury 14 Nov 10
Firemen fear that people will die if proposed cuts to the fire service in the West Midlands go ahead. West Midland Fire Service is currently facing the prospect of slashing £30 million from its budget.
Last night Chris Downes, regional secretary of the West Midlands Fire Brigade Union, warned: “I believe that some of these cuts could lead to people losing their lives”…
News
Express & Star 12 Oct 10
Up to £30 million could be slashed from West Midlands Fire Service’s annual budget. The authority currently gets £70 million of its £120 million budget from central Government.
But fire bosses fear they could lose almost half of that…
News
James Cartledge B'ham Mail 17 Sep 10
A project in which a £10 million “white elephant” fire base was built for the West Midlands has now delivered 999 kit which is itself a fire risk, a Government minister has revealed.
Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has revealed that vital equipment used to give firefighters details of emergency calls cannot be installed because it has a tendency to overheat and become a fire risk.
And computer systems designed to get fire engines to their destinations quickly are fitted with out-of-date maps which cannot be updated…
News
Jane Tyler B'ham Mail 7 Sep 10
Fire chiefs have pledged that looming budget cuts next year will not lead to delays in answering 999 calls.
They said that – even if the cuts meant they have fewer fire engines – lives and properties will not be put at risk. And that instead calls would be prioritised so that less serious incidents, such as car fires and automatic fire alarms, would receive a slower response time.
The pledge was made during a meeting of the West Midlands Fire Authority’s executive committee on Monday…
News
Vicky Farncombe B'ham Mail 28 Aug 10
Millions of pounds have been wasted in the West Midlands on expensive fire engines that are too heavy for UK roads and a state-of-the-art control room which may never be used, a union has claimed.
The fire service control room in Wolverhampton was built three years ago as part of a £423 million project to regionalise the brigade in England and scrap local control rooms.