London Fire & Emergency Planning Authority has received a report outlining cuts to fire stations, budgets and fire appliances. The proposals include closing 12 fire stations, redundancy for 400 fire fighters and 100 civilian staff. LFEPA votes on the proposals on the 21st January.
The London Fire Brigade's budget has been cut by the Mayor and the government by £45 million over the next two years. Even after the 12 stations, 18 fire appliances and 400 firefighters have been cut the Mayor and LFEPA will still have to find over £5 million of cuts. On average it costs £1.4 million to run a one fire engine station.
Darren Johnson said:
“The public are desperately worried about these closures. Rather than cutting council tax the mayor should be providing the funding to keep these fire stations open. The closures are completely unnecessary but the mayor seems more interested in council tax cuts than London's safety.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
The Mayor is planning a cut to council tax worth 7p per week to the average Band D resident. We estimate the lost income over the next two years from cutting council tax to be in the order of £46m compared to a freeze, or £87m compared to increasing the precept by 2%. However, this is based on the assumption that the Mayor seeks to reduce the precept in even steps in the years leading up to 2016-17, in order to cut council tax by 10% by the end of his term of office.