MP CHALLENGES GOVERNMENT ON FIRE COVER

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 30th Jul 2007

Local MP, Julia Goldsworthy, has raised the proposals to reduce night time fire cover in Falmouth and Camborne in Parliament.

Ms Goldsworthy used a special debate to highlight that Cornwall's local government has one of the lowest levels of funding in the country and raised her concern that the county council was being forced to take decisions based on the current financial situation and not the risks. Speaking during the debate, Ms Goldsworthy said:

"The council and chief fire officer are trying to do the right thing in coming forward with the proposals. They have openly acknowledged that those proposals are the least worst option, not the best option…

"The people of Falmouth and Camborne are being asked to meet the brunt of the so-called cost-effectiveness drive, knowing that it will result in longer call-out times and that there will be knock-on effects across the county."

Having asked several Parliamentary questions about fire services, Ms Goldsworthy used the debate to draw attention to the way in which the Government's nationally set targets appear to conflict with what the fire authority is having to achieve. Whilst Government policy dictates that Cornwall is required to reduce accidental fire-related deaths in the home by ten percent, locally the Chief Fire Officer is having to downgrade services in order to making financial savings.

The MP, who has previously met with the Chief Fire Officer and local fire fighters to discuss the plans, argued that she wasn't asking for fire services that were better than anywhere else in the country. Instead, Ms Goldsworthy said:

"We just think that we deserve the same level of fire service as the rest of the country. We do not want lives to be threatened because we have become the only county in the whole of England that has no whole-time fire cover at night."

During the debate, Ms Goldsworthy also referred to the recent increase in the number of arson attacks in the area and quoted from the West Briton's recent coverage calling Camborne the 'arson capital of Cornwall'.

Ms Goldsworthy added:

"At the very time when arson appears to be increasing across the area, we are having to look at proposals to make cuts."

The Minister agreed to raise the matter with the Department for Communities and Local Government and Ms Goldsworthy has now written to ask for an urgent meeting at the Department, to discuss her concerns in detail.

ENDS - For more information, please contact Sam Cannicott - cannicotts@parliament.uk / 020 7219 8210