MP labels fire chiefs 'a disgrace' over cuts

The accusation was made by in the House of Commons by Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant who said he had 'lost confidence' in the organisation, advocating that it should combine with Staffordshire Police.

He criticised the authority for spending millions of pounds on a new fire station in Lichfield while axing the number of fire engines based there.

The authority has called his comments 'unfair and ill-informed'.

The idea for combining the two bodies has come from Matthew Ellis, Staffordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner.

Mr Fabricant said: "I have lost confidence in the Staffordshire Fire Authority, which has decided to build a brand new fire station in Lichfield but to reduce the number of appliances to half of that which it is presently.

"Staffordshire firefighters and local residents have been badly let down by the Fire Authority. Matthew Ellis has made proposals that will combine back office functions while strengthening front line services. The Fire Authority instead wish to preserve their own fiefdom at the cost of safety.

"The replacement of one of the two main fire tenders with a smaller vehicle which is unsuitable for house fires or major road traffic accidents is a disgrace when reorganisation could have maintained the existing vehicles and full fire protection.

"While fire fighters and police officers would maintain independence from each other, the merging of back-office functions – as happens in other countries – could provide efficiency savings while enhancing firefighting capabilities."

He asked Local Government Secretary Greg Clark, to work with Mr Ellis who had 'good, positive plans' to combine the police and fire services.

Mr Clark said he intended to remove the barriers that have prevented the kind of collaboration proposed. He said he was 'very interested' in Staffordshire's plans.

Councillor Len Bloomer, chairman of the Fire and Rescue Authority, insisted Staffordshire was one of the best performing services in the country.

He said: "All decisions made by the authority on behalf of the people of Staffordshire are carefully considered and based on hard evidence.

"The service has maintained a robust response capacity but the organisations also strongly believe that prevention is far better, as well as far safer and more cost effective, than cure. The service has continually delivered better outcomes with less money and fully intends to do so in the future.

"It has formed a number of highly successful collaboration with a wide range of organisations and will continue to build upon these partnerships for the benefit our residents.

"The comments made by Mr Fabricant are ill informed, unfair and fail to recognise the significant achievements of both the service and the FRA."