A MAJOR reorganisation of day-time fire cover in the Warrington area is being proposed by Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service.
It would result in replacing the existing town centre fire station and changes to the way Stockton Heath and Birchwood fire stations operate.
The aim is to improve the spread of day-time fire cover and prevention and protection activity across the Birchwood and Stockton Heath fire stations.
Birchwood is currently a nucleus fire station – meaning it is crewed by full-time firefighters between 7am and 7pm every day and at night by on-call firefighters who live within five minutes of the fire station and respond by pager when on call.
The proposal is to crew Birchwood with full-time firefighters between 7am and 7pm four days in eight and by on-call firefighters on the other four days. There would be no change to the on-call cover overnight between 7pm and 7am.
Stockton Heath is currently an on-call fire station. The proposal is to have full-time firefighters between 7am and 7pm on four days in eight. Outside these hours there would be no on-call cover but instead, other fire stations such as Warrington and Lymm would respond to incidents within 10 minutes.
The proposal would balance fire cover and ensure that response times in Stockton Heath and Birchwood would remain within 10 minutes on average.
Community work and risk-reducing prevention and protection activities would remain the same in Warrington borough but would be shared more evenly across Stockton Heath and Birchwood.
Ending on-call cover at Stockton Heath will mean the authority can sell nine houses they own near the fire station and use the proceeds to fund capital spending, including replacing the town centre Warrington fire station.
There would be no change in the number of full-time fire engines in Warrington during the day.
Average response times in Stockton Heath could be up to one minute faster while those in Birchwood may be up to one minute slower. But both would be within 10 minutes.
There would be no change to community work and prevention and protection activities in Warrington, but activity would be spread more evenly across Birchwood and Stockton Heath.
Six full-time firefighters would be moved from Birchwood to Stockton Heath. Fifteen firefighter posts at Stockton Heath – only 10 of which are currently filled – would be removed.
When there was no full-time fire engine at Stockton Heath, there would be no on-call cover but cover would be provided by Warrington and Lymm within 10 minutes
Before any of the changes are approved, there will be a consultation with the public either online via https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CheshireFire2024-2028Plan or via email at [email protected]
