Published: Wednesday, 29th March, 2006 10:07
Fire station decision a betrayal says MSP
By Border Telegraph Newsroom
Print Article
MELROSE fire station will close next year.
Members of the Lothian and Borders Fire Board last week voted to close the station, after rejecting a plea to hold off the decision until all the information regarding the closure had been scrutinised further.
The decision comes despite a massive campaign to keep the station open, including a petition with over 10,000 signatures, and cuts the jobs of ten retained fire fighters.
Melrose fire fighter, Gordon Blain, said: “With this decision I feel strongly that the fire service in the Borders is seriously depleted.
“The station will eventually close. One or two of the lads might work elsewhere, but we haven’t sat down and discussed it.”
The closure was a result of a new strategic computer planning system, which decided that coverage of the central Borders is already provided by Galashiels fire station.
Chief fire officer, Brian Allaway, said: “With regards to the central Borders, I believe the plan will be able to cope with the demands now and in the future.
“I would like to pay tribute to the firemen in Melrose. It is not about their capability or their professionalism.
“They have done a very good job, but the fact of the matter is that the Melrose fire station is too close to Galashiels fire station for it to be considered necessary.”
Friday’s meeting came a day after a full meeting of Scottish Borders Council members decided not to put forward £165,000 a year to pay for the station’s upkeep.
SBC had been given the option of funding the station itself, but councillors voted 17 to 14 against the plan.
Mr Blain said: “I think yesterday’s meeting, without getting the funding put in place, meant that this would be a non-result.
“I think the council is under a severe monetary and legal obligation, and they found yesterday that they couldn’t justify the funding. They put forward the best option at that time.”
Mr Blain continued: “I thought after our public meeting in Melrose that we convincingly defeated the firemaster and his plan.
“But after the consultation, the firemaster proceeded with the Melrose part of the plan and that left the council in the predicament they found themselves in yesterday. That inevitably closed us down.”
Only eight of the 18 members of the fire board attended Friday’s meeting.
The Borders was represented by SBC councillors Hugh Wight and Bill Smith, standing in as a substitute for Kenny McCartney.
Councillor Smith, also the local member for Melrose, was disappointed that no substitutes for the other absent board members attended.
He said: “I was angry that it was decided by only eight members of the board membership of 18.
“If everyone had been there, who knows what the decision would have been? I am very disappointed, as will be the whole Melrose and district community.”
Local MP, Michael Moore, and MSP, Jeremy Purvis, have branded the decision a “betrayal.”
Mr Purvis said: “It was a small turnout by members of the fire board, but the negative vote is a betrayal not only to the dedicated and professional crew at Melrose, but also to the 10,000 people who signed the petition, and the 2000 people who wrote to the fire board very concerned about the reduction in fire cover in the Melrose area, which, of course, covers the Borders General Hospital.”
Mr Purvis and Mr Moore are now discussing how to continue the campaign the save the station.
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