Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Letter To Fire Authority Councillors


Councillors of the West Yorkshire Fire Authority 
cc - to Inner East Leeds Councillors & MPs 

We wish to inform you that we have applied to English Heritage for Gipton Fire  Station to be listed as an historic asset.The community have applied for her to be grade 2 listed. 

As members of  WYFRA  we believe that your decision in December 2011 to close  and sell Gipton  which is by National Audit Office  standards a LOW COST station was wrong, moving the fire and rescue service further away from areas of very high risk in inner east Leeds  As you are no doubt aware this decision has opened the flood gates and now you are being asked to vote in December  2012 to axe even more stations. 

However,  this email is to ask for support to review the decision you made in Dec 2011 and  have a full and frank debate about keeping Gipton operational; an option we think will provide better cover and value for money. 

I wish to draw to your attention the numerous press articles below about our listing  application and also to the firecutscostlives  website which is promoting lively debate on the WYFRS Integrated Risk Management Plans and which is receiving substantial traffic from not only West Yorkshire (approx 75% of hits) but other areas of the country and is getting unsolicited emails of support from as far afield as the United States. 

As we at FCCL believe in openness and transparency we will be publishing any responses of support for a debate at WYFRA to  keep  Gipton operational and also your views on her potential listing as an historic asset. 
If we do not hear from you  - we will also be publishing a list of elected members who choose to ignore this email request for a response within 10 working days. Your opinion on her status either way is important.We at FCCL believe in openness and transparency within the democratic process. Please note we are not suggesting you predetermine yourselves as elected members, we merely wish you to review the status of Gipton in the light of a potential listing. 

Why borrow money to build new - when you can renovated and repair, saving a beautiful building from potential demolition at the same time? 

Article from BBC website is here  HERE   


Morning Star - HERE    


The Guardian  - HERE   


Yorkshire Evening Post  - HERE 


And most importantly the Firecutscostlives website is here  HERE 


Do YOU wish to be the Councillor who was responsible for decimating the fire and rescue service?  

We hope not !  We also have to ask why there are no different options being presented to you at your meeting on December 21st 2012  - why are the proposals so black  & white, yes and no?   

Yours in Unity
The Fire Cuts Cost Lives Team


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Fire Cuts Cost Lives

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please listen to the common sense arguments on this very important issue to our communities.

We have lost so much of our infrastructure already, things that add to our quality of life but this could be said in a very real way to add to our safety!

It is time for those who were elected to represent this area to stand up and be counted, we are your constituents we deserve your commitment to our safety and well being.

Anonymous said...

Well said - and if at the end of this people DIE because of cuts inprovision - perhaps we should as a community sue Mr Pilling and Co for corporate manslaughter

Sarah Covell said...

I agree in principle with what you are saying - BUT - its the COUNCILLORS who make the decisions. Ron Grahame learnt the hard way last year - he said one thing - voted another and even though i campaigned for his election because of HIS ACTIONS i will never vote labour again. We need free thinking individuals not political party SHEEP who follow the herd instinct, Somebody has to stand up to CFO Pilling and tell him he is WRONG

Sarah Covell said...

And i was brought up in the fire service so a bit of gold braid and a few shiny buttons means naff all - i will happily tell him he is mistaken. I would like to think he would listen but from his actions of the last few weeks he protects his top level staff but not the ones that actually do the dirty work of fire and rescue.