The future of Crianlarich’s fire station will not be decided until after a public consultation has taken place this summer, it has been confirmed.
A Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) official said he could not comment on the possibility of the site becoming operational again until after the consultation had been completed.
Recent figures show that no on-call firefighters are based at the long-term dormant Stirlingshire fire station, which is currently listed as having 10 job vacancies.
Crianlarich and its surroundings are currently served by Tyndrum Community Fire Station, around five miles away.
SFRS says it is struggling to recruit and retain on-call firefighters across Scotland, but the issue has been especially acute in Crianlarich.
However, during a January meeting of Stirling Council’s Public Safety Committee, SFRS emphasised that its recruitment campaign in Tyndrum had been “very successful”.
What is a dormant fire station?
A long-term dormant station is defined as having been unable to maintain a crew for an extended period, and where all reasonable steps have been taken to recruit a viable crew.
A spokesperson said SFRS is “very much at the mercy of communities” when it comes to staffing more rural fire stations.
According to the fire service, a consultation will be launched later this year, inviting members of the public to share their thoughts.
SFRS Deputy Chief Officer Andy Watt said: “We want to make sure we have the right resources in the right place at the right time, this is why we are developing a Strategic Service Review Programme to look at how we deliver our services to become the modern service Scotland needs.
“Last year we conducted a public pre-consultation, Shaping Our Future Service – Your Say, which identified a significant number of potential change options for the service.
“We are currently working through a process to complete impact assessments on those options as part of our consultation process to allow us to go to a full public consultation later this year with a shortlist of options.
“This is a complex and lengthy process, unprecedented for the fire and rescue service in Scotland, and we must take time to ensure that we get it right.
“There will be no confirmed proposals over the future of any specific fire stations until our full public consultation is launched this summer.”
‘Closure must be supported by clear evidence’
Trossachs and Teith councillor Martin Earl acknowledged the recruitment challenges in Crianlarich, but stressed that the fire station should not be permanently closed without just cause.
Scottish Conservatives councillor Mr Earl said: “Trying to recruit and retain officers in these very rural locations is extremely difficult and the Fire Service have run a number of campaigns to try and address that.
“Staffing one station in Tyndrum has proved a challenge in itself which is why Crianlarich has not been operational for a number of years.
“However if there is to be any proposal to close that station then it must be supported by clear evidence that there has been cover and timely responses made to all the calls in the area from the Tyndrum station alone since the Crianlarich station was mothballed.”
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