South Yorkshire Consulation ..................

Good Morning South Yorkshire 

Ok so its a bit early for humour! 

The Fire Brigades Union represents Fire Fighters all over the country, the Union like fire has no boundaries. So when we heard of our neighbours in South Yorkshire we did the ONLY   thing  possible and have offered to put our little blog at  our South Yorks comrades disposal. Because like us here at Fire Cuts Cost Lives the FBU believe a solid coalition of fire professionals and community are the  way to save the fire service from these irresponsible cuts in provision.

We hope the FCCL effect of gentle banter combined with solid facts will  ensure that the citizens of South Yorkshire have the full facts in regard to the current consultation at their disposal. And as the fire and rescue service learnt to their cost in West Yorkshire in 2012 social media can have a massive effect on how the process of public consultation works.

So over  the coming few weeks we hope the FCCL effect will rub off on to the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority and they will start to realise that the community do not back  the cuts in provision and response times that they propose.

Ask yourself a question  ,,,,to get the correct information about response times who would you trust to give an honest answer?

So 

lets start with the easy stuff,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, if you want to know more about how you can support you local firefighters get in touch with 

South Yorkshire Fire Brigades Union. 

Their  website is HERE  and their brigade organiser is Matt Winslow and  you can email him by clicking   HERE 

And if you wish to voice your opposition please use the link HERE to take you to the SYFRS website 

----Just CLICK HERE 

to take you directly to the consultation questions.

but REMEMBER ONE THING

It's YOUR LOCAL COUNCILLORS 

WHO WILL  MAKE THE DECISION TO CLOSE YOUR LOCAL STATIONS!!!!


TUESDAY at Doncaster Mansion House there will be  an opportunity to view the plans and have you say ---- details are available HERE  

Shocked or Sanguine ?

Well i think it is safe to say we here at FCCL float between both of these emotions most days in regard to fire and rescue...........some days if you didnt laugh you would cry.

Lets start with 

SHOCKED......

Although we haven't been able to glean any more details there was an incident in Beck Road , Harehills, Leeds. LS8 4EJ  in the early hours ( 03:30 ) of Saturday morning - a VERY HIGH RISK WARD. A male was rescued by the crews from Gipton and Moortown who turned out BUT he was pronounced dead at the scene. Again no mention of this on the public  WYFRS incident logs. 

Beck Road 

Beck Road is a perfect example of a very high risk area -dense housing including back to backs, high poverty and high ethnic population of whom english is a second language. WYFRS voted to move the local station further away from areas such as these! 

We have reported several deaths in the East Leeds Area since this blog started - in  fact not one but  THREE of the local East Leeds councilllors sit on the fire authority. 

Cllr Brian Selby  - - who last year didn't bat an eyelid when fire deaths rose in his ward by 18% 

Brian Selby  - Labour - Killingbeck and Seacroft. 

Cllr Arif Hussain  -  who in the two times we have visited the fire authority proceedings has not spoken at all. - we wonder how he is feeling about a fire death in his ward?  

Arif Hussain - Labour - Gipton and Harehills 

Cllr Ron Grahame  - who has now since 

a) promising to support the FBU in 2011 and then coming out with the phrase "Sorry Boys i have been whipped"   - for futher details please read this  

 b)  at the December 2013 IMRP vote didnt even bother to turn up! (too scared we reckon cos we have made his life quite miserable since 2011  as he was FCCLs local councillor! ) Ron since turning his back on his communities views and commonse has had two  deaths in the ward that we are aware of!!!  

Ron Grahame - Labour -  Burmantofts & Richmond Hill   

As all three have  had deaths in their wards in the last year we wonder if they are man enough to stand up and say  - i made an error of judgement - and get behind their communities and fight cuts in provision. 

Sadly we doubt it -  but it will be interesting to see what the Labour Party says in the 2014 local elections !!!

We do  of course offer our sincere condolences to 

the deceased mans family. And thanks to the crews at Gipton and Moortown, we know you did your very best. 

Anyway - lets get to SANGUINE .........

Monday was a bank holiday - one of those days you brave the sun, rain  or  hail to go to  worship at a D I Y centre.  And before you go,  you do without a shadow of a doubt use one of these 

A Tape Measure 

So if you are putting up shelves, buying a new washer or even a humblewashing up bowl you  know before you get the product home that it will FIT..... 

The Chief, Deputy Chief and 2 ACO's  cost the tax payers of West Yorkshire in excess of half a million pound a year in salaries alone, they have a drawer full of degrees between them (paid for by the taxpayers we suspect) and you would think when stumping up (OUR MONEY)  they would be able to use a tape measure to ensure the equipment they buy would be of the right size, after all  its what we pay them for. 

WYFRS have recently purchased a shiny new water ladder  which was to be based at Cleckheaton but was delivered to WYFRS Headquarters at Birkenshaw.  But when the new kit was taken to its new home it was discovered that the new ladder was 

Cleckheaton already has a dual level appliance bay as they once bought a piece of kit so big they had to dig a pit in the floor to allow it to fit! Talk about PLANNING  (not) 

We think Simon and Co should read this before making any other major or minor purchases and perhaps remember its the tax payers of West Yorkshire who pay for their errors. 

AND ITS THE PUBLIC WHO PAY WITH THEIR LIVES WHEN THE FIRE CUTS MEAN RESPONSE TIMES WILL INCREASE!


WHOOPS - we almost forgot..... WYFRS are particularly bad with tape measures. As you go into the main hall at Birkenshaw HQ to attend fire authority meetings you will see stuck to the outside of the building a rather large, ugly  and cumbersome lift shaft.  When that was installed  the doors didn't open correctly as they were not the right size for the hole - we swear you could not make it up. 

Its FBU's to Us.

We have  said if we had even a small fire we would prefer 

And when it comes to telling the truth about response times and incidents  we prefer 

Which is why  we support the Fire Brigades Union in the sterling work they do in regard to the Anti Cuts Agenda all over  the country, even though we concentrate our efforts in the West Yorkshire Region.   

Remember,  the Chief Fire Officer Simon Pilling was proven by 

his own data we FOI'd  to have never attended an incident in 2011 /12! 

We wrote about  it way back in December 2012  here   

We cant help but wonder if any members of the FBU who are operational can say that  they never attended an incident in an entire year (whilst getting a tax free fancy car ! )

Occasionally  we have felt like packing in and giving up, but we haven't; opposing  cuts in provision is on occasions like being a goldfish that is repeatedly thrown into a tank of piranhas.   

And WHY ?

Simple - because the FBU is 

Choose Life - choose an experienced fire fighters word and their operational experience over a spreadsheet jockeys word EVERY TIME 

To contact the FBU - please see our page 

HERE 

HR Update - New fire fighter posts in West Yorkshire !!!!

 Well OK, we confess there has only been ONE. 

Was it a "coal face firefighter" at  £28k a year 

NOPE

Was it  middle ranking officer at about  £50k a year 

NOT THAT EITHER 

The only recruitment that has taken place is for an 

Assistant Chief Fire Officer 

at a whopping  £120k plus 

figures from  WYFRA HR Committee 12th April 2013 

Now call us old fashioned but surely IF the number of stations is reducing, staff numbers being cut and  things according to Simon Pilling are all looking good, (fires down, smoke alarms saving people from burning buildings etc) 

Why do you need to replace an ACO?   

We know Martyns gone off  to play trains, a hobby he has pursued since being a teenager,  but  surely the top table should take a large dose of its own medicine and embrace the concept of not filling vacant posts due to retirement.  

Don't forget we are due another ACO retirement later in the year Craig McIntosh retires (and is  probably due to spend more time with his bagpipes) and then  Steve Rhodes hops into his  empty post on  July 1st 2013. This was all decided way back in September 2012. 

Perhaps its time to consider a 

"fundamental review"  of  the top table. 

Actually the HR report for April 12th is a cracking good read, and we will be blogging more about it the coming few days.Staff Cuts, job re profiling , compromise agreements, redundancies, compulsory and otherwise make shameful reading especially when this has all be implemented by a Labour controlled authority. 

Mind you Politicians also line their nests with money from the public purse,  we asked way back in September if people knew how much fire authority councillors receive as an allowance. And many councillors receive more than one allowance  from varying sources.  Click here to see what we wrote way back in Sept 2012. The chair of the fire authorities income is a fascinating read, he must have at least 30 hours in every day to pack it all in, and thats not counting the FOI investigation  he has been involved with recently! 

We are currently researching how much some of the WYFRA members get from the public purse to carry out their various duties.   It's quite an interesting  topic,  while  many of their constituents lose benefits, and get clobbered by bedroom taxes etc  politicians don't seem to be suffering at all ..............and the more "posts" you do, the more money you get. 

But surely the more you do 

 - the less time you give to each! 

Oh to be a fly on the wall ..............

Tonight Chief Fire Officer Simon Pilling meets with Morley Town Council - in secret behind the closed doors of the Town Hall.


Will he charm them with his fancy uniform, shiny buttons and pips on his shoulder. Or will they stand up for the rights of every citizen to have a decent  fire and rescue service.

Garforth & Stanks to the Rescue

GARFORTH & STANKS

TO THE RESCUE !!!!!!!!

Again on the 21st September we are getting a story thorough of a chinmey fire in ABERFORD where two stations destined to close attended.

Crews from GARFORTH & STANKS in East Leeds at  18:35 raced to the fire - which of course meant that GIPTON (yet another station to close)   was left minding the shop for the East Leeds Area.

Seems to us here at firecutscost lives that

Chief Fire Officer Pilling knows

THE PRICE OF EVERYTHING

 and

THE VALUE OF NOTHING!!!!!!!!

(and we just have to pray that the councillors on the West Yorkshire Fire Authority DO  )