Jeff bravely fought the injuries he received rescuing children from a house fire and died on July 10th 1983 of his injuries.
At the engine naming ceremony at Keighley Fire Station on April 27th CFO Simon Pilling said
In my opinion, the term ‘hero’ is often overused by certain individuals and by some in the media, but there’s no other word to describe fireman Jeff Naylor.
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| Mr Naylor's children at naming ceremony (Keighley News) |
And we agree unreservedly with CFO Pilling - BUT he forgot to mention a few things
Last year Keighley got a new pump a MAN 4x4 Rural pump the same type of appliance that Holmfirth and Todmorden have. Since they have had the vehicle we are given to understand there have been issues about whether it is fit for purpose due to driving problems and crew cab space is also an issue.This was recently discussed with the Deputy Chief Fire Officer Steve Beckley when he spent the day at Keighley (coincidentally the MAN pump was at workshops out of the way).
FCCL have reason to believe that management are considering removing the pump from Keighley and giving them a normal Volvo pump instead and then giving the MAN pump to Slaithwaite which seems to be admitting that they have bought a pump that is not fit to use in the area it was actually bought for!
BUT MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY THAN THAT ..............................
FCCL have reason to believe that management are considering removing the pump from Keighley and giving them a normal Volvo pump instead and then giving the MAN pump to Slaithwaite which seems to be admitting that they have bought a pump that is not fit to use in the area it was actually bought for!
BUT MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY THAN THAT ..............................
In April this pump was named in memory of Jeff Naylor and now it seems that that doesn't
matter and it means nothing. So maybe even in Early July - perhaps even next Monday the
pump named in honour of Jeff Naylor will be shipped out to the retained station at Slaithwaite. We understand the memorial plate will be simply unscrewed and added to whatever pump replaces is (we understand a straight swap is likely).
Unless Simon P and his staff make these decisions in an adhoc way (which as highly paid managers is an allegation they would surely refute) Simon knew two months ago that naming the MAN pump was a sham! If the above is true and the swap will take place shortly, we to would make a statement,and it would probably go something like this....
In FCCLs opinion, the term ‘hypocrite’ is often overused by certain
individuals and by some in the media, but there’s no other word to describe CFO Pilling.
Fully disagree with you here I completely understand the importance of remembering the hero Jeff Naylor. The naming of the pump was such a good thing to happen but you can not have an appliance unfit for duty stopping at Keighley simply because it was named after Jeff.
ReplyDeleteThe management have for once listened to the crews at Keighley and taken on board all the good and bad points about the pump. The automatic Volvo which will replace the MAN pump is more suited to the geographical area of Keighley and can carry more equipment. which lets face it, they will need now there's only 1 appliance covering such a large area.
Maybe another naming ceremony should be arranged im not sure there's no easy answer but its important to have the correct safe equipment/appliance for our frontline firefighters serving the local area.
I think you have missed the point.The views about the pump are not the consideration.Unless as stated they so useless as managing their equipment Simon Pilling must have known that the ceremony to name the pump was a sham.Why not just wait until the 10th July (the anniversary of FM Naylors death and name the new pump.
ReplyDeleteSurely you cannot support moving the name it might cost £1 to move and that would go to keeping open a station
ReplyDelete