Balmossie fire station could be at greater risk of closure or downgrading if Scotland’s fire services are centralised, the convener of Tayside fire board has claimed.
Ken Lyall was speaking after the publication of statistics showing the station on the border of Dundee and Angus had dealt with only 10 overnight fires in 2010-11.
These included just six fires in houses an average of one every two months making it again far and away the quietest whole-time fire station in the region and one of the quietest in Scotland.
It has not been much busier putting out primary fires during daytime just 25 during the year and 14 of them in dwellings.
Balmossie has been continually under the spotlight since chief fire officer Stephen Hunter made two failed attempts to downgrade it from whole-time to part-time.
This would have left retained (on-call) crew to cover the hours from 6pm to 8am as they do in much of Tayside for day and night shifts to free up more full-time staff for Forfar and Perth.
These plans were defeated on the basis of opposition from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), which claimed the figures did not reveal the number of home safety visits performed by the Balmossie night shift.Busier stationsThe figures also did not show the number of times Balmossie crews were called out as back-up for crews from busier stations although it was contended the same arguments could be advanced for all stations.
Balmossie could now be affected as a result of national consultation into merging Scotland’s eight fire services into a single organisation.
The Tayside fire board is opposed to the merger proposal in the belief that Tayside Fire and Rescue has shown itself to be a lean and efficient outfit thatwould gain nothing and may lose a lot if it became part of a national service.
Mr Lyall said he personally doubted Balmossie’s prospects of survival in its present shape if there is an all-Scotland fire service.
“If there is a national service I think it is inevitable that this issue will return because I think it has to return because there will be call to make savings,” he said. “I don’t see any way round it.
“I think if they are looking to make changes they will look to cases like Balmossie first.”
Tayside FBU secretary Ron Costello did not share Mr Lyall’s view that Balmossie would be under threat from a national fire and rescue service.
“I do agree with Ken Lyall that we want to keep Tayside Fire and Rescue as it is, but if there is a national service we just don’t know how it will run and I don’t want to start guessing because we don’t know how it will change,” he said.
“The statistics don’t tell the whole story with Balmossie in that it is heavily in demand for providing back-up to units that are called out from places like Carnoustie and Kingsway East.”