Happy Birthday to Us !

It is an important day for us here at FCCL.

It is a year to the day since we started blogging!

And before we doing anything else we have to say a BIG THANK YOU to the very kind person who sent flowers to Sarah's office this morning. We wrongly assumed  they were from the FBU and tried to say thank you, but apart from a Happy 1st Birthday tag there was no name.  Tomorrow evening we will place them on the Fire Fighters Memorial in Burley, Leeds  in recognition of all the fire fighters who have died carrying out their duties and serving the public without thought for their personal safety but for now they have pride of place in the house.



I think most people know why we started this blog. In December 2011 after fighting hard to try and save both Gipton and Stanks Fire Stations from closure in East Leeds  we read with incredulity the fact that WYFRS were publicly crowing that the IRMP Consultation Proposals pages of their website had had 1,750 hits. We as  the community and indeed the FBU concurred with us, that for 12 weeks of consultation it was pathetic, especially as many WYFRS staff would have taken a peek to see exactly what the website said from their computers at home. FCCL itself had been on the site from at least 5 different IP addresses.

1750 works out at approx  21 hits a day

for an area that has over a million residents!

Pathetic!

So in September 2012 when the next round of cuts consultation was announced, we decided to set up a little experiment to TRY and get 1751 hits to prove to the public how much positive spin WYFRS put on their literature. A little blog with at that time no publicity apart from a few postings in the comments section of the local newspapers.  (we didn't set up our facebook page till later in September).

In the three months of consultation in 2012  the FCCL blog got 41,0001 views. 

We would like to share with you some of our vital statistics to date;

102,480 hits as of 7pm this evening.

Wednesday  7th November 2012 was our best ever day with over 5,500 hits which was triggered by retired Firefighter Joe O'Keefe - Morals don't pay the mortgage post. 

Our Top Three locations are

1. Leeds
2. London (which is indicative of  smart phone usage)
3. Cleckheaton 


Our Top Three Service Providers are

1. IP Pools
2. Business static locations
3.Sky

and way down at  No 53  - West Yorkshire Fire and Civil Defence Authority which has visited us 34  times. The last being earlier today (sorry we didn't update the blog in time for you to see).

BUT THE THING WE ARE PROUDEST

 OF IS OUR

BOUNCE RATE  =   14.98%

Most websites expect to get a bounce rate of at least 40% . We have all done it - that "whoops that's not the site we expected"  when you  jump straight off a website because it is the wrong one. A bounce rate of 14.98%   makes us the envy of our friends in the IT world. (and we work in IT remember)  In fact in November 2012 it was less than 6% and even in the wilderness months of January / February  never went past 20%.

 FCCL is without a doubt attracting
its' target audience!


Mind you we knew from day two (and only 56 hits) we were onto a winner. But more about that tomorrow when we will tell you about a very unusual phone call from Hannah Stoneman of WYFRS and follow up emails from CFO Pilling.


BUT AS ALWAYS WE WILL LEAVE THE BEST TILL LAST.....   


We owe so many people THANK YOU's


David Williams of the West Yorks FBU

and all of the WYFBU  team who have taken a great deal of stick for what we have done.


Andy Killingbeck - retired Gipton Fire fighter  who even though he wasn't and isn't responsible for FCCL has undergone a malicious pension review because of FCCL.

All at South Yorks FBU - and their comrades in Doncaster who made us very welcome.


Joe O'Keefe (retired fire fighter Keighley) who has fought hard to bring the truth into the public domain.


Anthea Orchard - ex WYFRS employee 


And perhaps the biggest THANK YOU OF ALL  needs to go to all the people who help us that we cannot ever name.

Without your help this  site would not be as successful
 as it has been.

We look forward to our next 365 days of blogging.