CONTROVERSIAL plans which could see the loss of one of Wellington’s two daytime fire crews have ‘gone out to public consultation’.

Devon and Somerset Fire Authority is proposing to close eight fire stations, mothball a number of engines and convert full-manning stations into part-time operations in a bid to save millions of pounds.

The authority is considering six options, one being ‘removal of third and second appliances, change of status to day crewing and to on-call at night only’.

Fourteen fire stations are affected. The proposal is ‘rather than take away the second fire engine from these stations, it is proposed that the first fire engine is still crewed 24/7 with ‘on-call’ staff but the second fire engine is crewed at night’.

Savings of £8.6 million would be made by implementing this option and would have a potential increase of 7,881 fire safety checks.

Wellington is manned by part-time firefighters. Crewing at existing whole-time stations would see a removal of 46 whole-time firefighter posts, which the authority would seek to realise savings through natural turnover and voluntary redundancy.

But Jamie Leslie, Brigade Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said that all he could see was the removal of resources.

He said: “The proposals represent the biggest cuts to front-line services anywhere in the country and we cannot endorse them either as a union or an authority.

“The authority needs to look again at its plans and properly consult with the union. We have been asking for months to see the proposals and hold talks around them.

“We have been put off time and again and only got to see them an hour before they were made public – this is simply not good enough.

“If part of the problem the service wants to address is the unavailability of on-call appliances, the service needs to address this first, with a decent contract, fairer pay and better treatment of their vital staff, not by simply shutting stations and removing pumps.”

He added: “There is a vague promise that shutting stations will somehow make the on-call model work better, again with no detail. We are left to trust that money will be reinvested, with no clue how or how much.”

Dave Lock, a Taunton fireman for 25 years and local representative of the Fire Brigades Union, said: “Wellington is crewed by retained firefighters and the proposal is that the second pump will only be available during night-time hours.”

The WWN has learnt that Wellington firefighers deal with a number of incidents outside their area.