Howarth Fire Station

One of the "concessions" made by the West Yorkshire Fire Authority was to support Haworth Parish Councils expression of interest in maintaining the station as a community asset,

that is run by and for the local community. 

Below are  some minutes of the meeting sent to us by John Moak of the Fire Brigades Union.

Councilor John Huxley chaired the meeting(JH)

JH outlined the WYFRS IRMP  and indicated that meetings had taken place between the deputy chief fire officer and the council. 

Because of these meetings the closure of Haworth Fire Station had been deferred for a period of two years.

This was to enable the Parish Council to carry out a feasibility study and meet with key partners.

WYFRS had discussed the lease /sale of the building, loan of equipment and training.

The idea of an emergency response centre was mentioned and intention of contacting the Police,Calder valley mountain rescue and the ambulance service.

Both  Keighley and Oxenhope councils had been contacted..

JH indicated that if the villagers present agreed, a group was to be formed that would report back by 1-12-13 on whether or not the project was a feasible one.

Some of the questions the group would seek answers to would be-

Will there be enough volunteers of trained personnel,

The financial cost, we may all have to share.

The Haworth Fire station personnel to be consulted ASAP

Chris Hopkins MP, the Prime Minister and Eric Pickles MP all to be contacted.

 JH  This is our idea, if we don’t do something, the fire cover will be reduced..

 Councillor Angel ... The fire cover is in our hands

Councillor........... It will cost

Councilor Mitchell(Oakworth) Explained that some of his remote hamlets were also covered by Haworth and he pledged his full support.

Public.....Where is the funding going to come from ?

JH......... I see the funding coming from Chris Hopkins ,government, localism and the big society

We have to do something.

Public Insurance for the Fire fighters would have to be linked to WYFRS.

We are not allowed to have a fire service, that’s why we are going for a first responder service..

Private fire services will be looked at as will industrial fire services.

Councillor Hill We have a two year reprieve for the feasibility study, no one has done this before, and we have to explore the feasibility. If we explore the possibilities we will find out yes or no.

JH  Indicated that it would probably take a village referendum to make the final decision.

C.Hill    Lets get the options on the table

Public........ What were the other options

JH ..... We have to talk to Bradford council

Public( Our own Joe O'Keefe ) explained the reality of the situation, you will not be getting trained Breathing apparatus wearers to carry out rescues your volunteers will probably only be qualified to squirt water at the job.

The council should be applauded but please channel your efforts in to trying to save what you have got now

Public£350,000 the cost of Haworth Fire Station, how many residents do we have, we have to explore ways of raising extra revenue 

Councilor R Our police station closed but we got it back, if we can hang on to the building we may get something back..

Public .....outlined the skills of the job, and that it was right that you were concerned, please fight for your service and your pump.

JH Indicated that the time had come for the villagers to make their decision.

Are you prepared to let us form a group to explore the possibility and also the possibility of a referendum?

Public A unanimous vote of Yes,

Public reminded the group of the importance of keeping the infrastructure.

Kath indicated that the Haworth appliance had been busy of late

You should be applauded, a round of applause followed.

..........................................................................................................................................................

But what about the station cat at Howarth - will she be considered in the "fursability study" ?

Howarth Station Cat - homeless? 

If you would like more background information about Howarth please click HERE

Response time are available HERE

If you are interested in the "bigger picture" of fire cuts across the UK please read Save Our Fire Service - its not just West Yorkshire these cuts will affect - the site is available HERE

For more information about West Yorkshire Fire Brigades Union, please click  HERE 

Fred Nietzsche & The Fire Brigade

Well,  we hear you say - what has Frederick Neitzsche got to do with Fire & Rescue ? 

The answer is simple........

LOTS 

Nietzsche was well known for his irony, which some would interpret as sarcasm, (i mean as if !!! )  ----- today we were reminded of one of Nietzsche's thinner works when we learnt that  there was a four pump mill fire in Haworth, which commenced at 6am and was closed at 12 noon. 

HAWORTH 

that nice low risk rural community where four pump fires are 

NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN 

BUT 

SADLY ACCIDENTS DO............

(if of course it is deemed to be an accident by the  powers that be) 

Today at 6am a fire broke out at  Lees Mill, Shepherd Croft, HAWORTH   in an area on the ground floor approx  15m x50m 

4 engines attended - Crews from Keighley, Haworth and Bingley attended 

and strangely enough the buildings postcode 

BD22 8RZ  

is deemed VERY LOW RISK 

 according to WYFRS !!!!

 and of course "post cuts"  two of the attending engines simply wouldn't be there to attend. Engines would 

have to be sent from further afield........ and of course  pre cuts, post cuts and during the cuts one thing will not change -

 a fire doubles in size every minute........ 

So to use Fredrick's words we at FCCL say 

"One day associated with our name  West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue  there will be a recollection of something frightful, of a fire like no other in West Yorkshire, and of the profoundest collision of conscience" * 

* please note we here at FCCL have fully working consciences -trouble is we are not sure  who at the fire authority and fire service have them. Because surely if there is a fire  they will all be very busy indeed blaming each other for the cuts in provision............. but by then it will be 

TOO LATE

Details of the fire can be found HERE at the Keighley News Website. ......... 

To read more of how businesses are affected by fire read our article "Businesses Down the Pan which is available HERE

A mill fire which devastated a Haworth Mill on Aug 14th 2010 demonstrates what fire can do to both buildings and businesses is below ............. seems fires in Haworth are not as rare as WYFRS seem to want us to believe. 

Accountability & Openness

In the  Code of Conduct 

we found these two definitions 

ACCOUNTABILITY: Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.

OPENNESS: Holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions that they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider public interest clearly demands.

So  as tomorrow is the last day of "consultation" we here at FCCL will be sending an email  next Monday to every member of the fire authority and senior members of the management team at WYFRS  asking them (in the spirit of openness and accountability of course ) what they have done in regard of promoting the consultation process. 

How many public / private meetings have they organised ?

How many public / private meetings have they attended ? 

How many emails  they have had from constituents in opposition (or favour) of the proposed cuts in provision?

But sadly we are prepared to be bitterly disappointed - we suspect that many will simply not reply - some such  as Cllr Gil Thornton & MP Hilary Benn will even show contempt and delete our emails unread.  (in which case we will have to FOI them for the information ). 

But it does already seem that deals are being done behind closed doors.............

BUT 

the tail you can see disappearing is that of the station cat at Haworth  -  station cat reported that last night her fire station had a very special visitor, its so interesting we have posted the whole message below.  

"Deputy Chief Steve Beckley at Haworth last night; Told them that Keighley is to lose a pump in April and Haworth will be staying open for the time being. What happened to the consultation process? Mr Beckley is the Deputy who has taken his pension but stayed on, so he now gets £60,000 salary and £60,000 pension, taking him back up to his original £120,000. He will also be drawing interest on his half a million lump sum at the same time, so another £10,000 there. Could he be the best part time employee in the county? "

YES - we think he probably is !!!
(this scheme is NOT open to ordinary fire fighters btw) 


With information like this - its no wonder we at FCCL get cross - we have of course emailed Simon Pilling to ask if this is TRUE - for a start was DFO Beckley at Keighley last night would be a good place to start.   


BUT it seems that deals are already being done ------  without the consultation process even finishing..................   


anyway for nearly the last time (well till next year) 



IF YOU OBJECT TO THE CUTS PLEASE

Email Hannah Stoneman (HERE) 

(And don’t forget to copy in your MP, 

Local Councillor, 

Fire authority members, 

see the Contacts list for their E-mail addresses HERE

Or Write to her Here:-

Hannah Stoneman

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue

Oakroyd Hall

Bradford Road

Birkenshaw

West Yorkshire

BD11 2DY

  

Haworth Parish Council Meeting TONIGHT

Please do not forget that Haworth Parish Council is tonight meeting representatives from the fire service,fire brigades union and local firefighters to discuss the proposed cuts in provision.

We expect it to be a "lively" meeting as response times in the area will increase by a whopping 3.47  minutes.

1  District	2  Ward	3  Response time	4 Predicted response time in 2020	5 Impact on response
Bradford	Worth Valley	09:09	12:56	03:47
Bradford	Idle and Thackley	04:18	07:53	03:34
Bradford	Shipley	03:27	06:43	03:17