FIREFIGHTERS in Kent are considering strike action against threatened mass sackings of 76 firefighters and the closure of five fire stations by the newly-elected Reform UK Kent County Council.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said yesterday: ‘Nothing is off the table’ and that it is examining options to oppose the plans, which include closing five stations, sacking 76 part-time on-call firefighters and changing shift patterns.
Conservative county councillor Bill Barrett said the proposals would be like playing ‘Russian roulette’ with public safety.
Barrett said he was ‘extremely concerned’ about the possible changes, ‘especially as we enter a period of ever-increasing extreme weather events’.
Kent Fire and Rescue Service chief executive Ann Millington claimed the potential cuts were about ‘spending money in the right ways to tackle our biggest risks, while competing with financial pressures’.
Millington had said possible cuts were ‘actually not about the money’, claiming that the number of fires in Kent has dropped in recent years.
‘But risks also keep changing, for example, we’re seeing more wildfires, so we need to be changing too, to meet those needs,’ adding that fire stations are ‘not closed lightly’ and that no others had been shut in 14 years.
She claimed that the proposed cuts are to provide money to ‘potentially invest in more wholetime firefighters, or put money into targeted prevention’.
The Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Authority (KMFRA), which includes 21 Kent County Council (KCC) members, launches a 12-week consultation into the planned cuts today.
Proposals include the closure of the on-call fire stations in Grain, Wye, Chilham, Westerham, and Cliffe, and removing on-call sections from four other full-time stations in Herne Bay, Deal, Tunbridge Wells, and Faversham.
FBU regional chair Tim Green claimed talks with Reform UK KCC members Thomas Mallon, Trevor Shonk, and James Defriend had been ‘very constructive’.
However, he added: ‘The fact remains that we are opposed to the proposed changes and nothing is off the table in Kent, and that includes industrial action.’
