Save Studley fire station (From Redditch Advertiser)

Save Studley fire station

10:59am Tuesday 29th September 2009

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“TIME costs lives” is the message Studley’s retained firefighters are delivering to the public as Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service considers shutting the village station.

The station may shut as part of plans to “cope with demands of the 21st century”. Out of 12 retained stations in Warwickshire, seven of them are earmarked for closure, including Studley and Bidford.

Graham Beck, a retained Studley firefighter and Fire Brigades Union rep at the station, is calling on local people to back their station and attend a consultation meeting in the village hall.

“Time costs lives, it’s as simple as that,” said Graham. “We can get to people in about seven or eight minutes when we’re alerted to a fire. If it takes longer to get to the scene of a fire, lives could be lost.

“If our station is closed, then Redditch crews will be needed more and more in this area. I don’t know how people in Redditch will feel about helping to fund the fire service in Warwickshire.

“A total of £100,000 was spent on a complete refurbishment of the Studley station only recently and now it looks like they’re going to close it.

“I suspect eventually they’ll pull down the building and sell the land for housing. Once we loose this community facility we will never get it back.”

He said it was vital that residents from Studley and surrounding villages served by Studley station attend the consultation meeting to show their support for the retained firefighters.

“There is now a 12-week consultation and we need people to show they want our station to remain open,” added Graham.

“And it’s not just Studley we want to remain open, but all the retained stations in Warwickshire. Any of them closing will be to the detriment of the people they help year in, year out.”

The consultation meeting at Studley Village Hall will take place on October 21 from 6.30pm and the chief fire officer, county councillors and Studley firefighters will be attending.

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