Better news about Yate Fire Station

Some positive news on Yate Fire Station. At the end of last year, Avon Fire Authority was consulting on cutting Yate Fire Station from a full time service 24 hours a day to having a full time crew 8am to 5pm and just one crew on call at night. We were very concerned that this could put people in the Yate area at risk - you can see Claire Young's response to the consultation here.

Our Yate colleague Cllr Mike Drew has been working hard with the Deputy Chief Fire Officer to develop an alternative. Instead of taking us down to one on call crew, the Fire Authority has now agreed there will be two part time crews on call. While not the full time crew we wanted, it's a step in the right direction.

Having two crews, even coming from home, makes a big difference. Because there will be two crews there at about the same time, they are allowed to do things like doing rescues. If there was only one local crew they could assess the situation but then they would have to wait for a second crew e.g. from Kingswood before they could actually enter a burning building.

The agreed two-crew manning is supported by the Fire Brigades Union, so we think it's a reasonable answer to the problem. A big thank you goes to Mike and everyone who has campaigned for a better outcome.