West Yorkshire firefighters to march in Leeds over cuts
Latest news...
WEST Yorkshire fire crews have organised a rally and march around Leeds city centre at the weekend to raise awareness and protest at the cuts being proposed to the front line emergency service.
This year’s proposed cuts could see the closure of 11 fire stations - including Morley’s Corporation Street station - with the building of five new ones to replace them.
There would also be a loss of 12 front line appliances and 250 operational firefighters, 20 of those being compulsory redundancies.
West Yorkshire Fire Brigades Union secretary David Williams said: “Firefighters are angry because these cuts will double the size of some station grounds which in turn will slow response times.
“In emergency situations every second counts, a few seconds delay can be the difference between saving a savable life or failing to save it. Small fires will develop into large fires and increase the risk to firefighters there to deal with them.
“West Yorkshire firefighters and members of the public will be marching to show those that sit on the fire authority the strength of feeling against these cuts.
“They also want to send a message back to central government that their false promises of no cuts to frontline services is absolute nonsense and in reality, as a result of them slashing budgets, emergency front line services are also being slashed to life threatening levels.
“All we are asking is a fair settlement to provide a fire service that’s fit for purpose for our communities”
The rally will assemble outside Leeds Art Gallery on The Headrow at 12.30pm.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Leeds,Yorkshire
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North
