Morley Fire Station - new campaign!

Morley Borough Independent Councillors have launched a new campaign aiming to block the introduction of staffing changes at Morley Fire Station which will mean no staff will be on site from 5pm at night through to 8am the following morning. This follows our successful campaign to prevent the closure of Morley Fire Station which was proposed by West Yorkshire Fire Authority late last year.

We have been regularly in touch with local firefighters and we share their concerns that daytime staffing will put local communities at risk. This will mean that should there be a fire incident or a road traffic accident between 5pm and 8am then Firefighters will not be on site at Morley Fire Station and will have to be called in from home. That would clearly put local communities and motorists at risk.

Figures provided to us show that West Yorkshire Fire Service has an additional £2.5 million to spend following the agreement to raise an additional £5 a year from council tax payers.

We have significant concerns about this new staffing structure and we believe that there has been no meaningful consultation around these new proposals. The last consultation closed before this new staffing arrangement was proposed. We are calling for meaningful consultations with local communities who will be put under threat by these arrangements.

We were to meet Firefighters at Morley Fire Station but the meeting was cancelled by Fire Chiefs without an explanation being offered. The Morley South Ward is regarded as high risk from fires by the Fire Authority. Morley Fire Station also covers the M62 and M621 corridor which has significant numbers of road traffic incidents.

This is almost like the closure of Morley Fire Station by stealth. It will be closed for 13 hours a day – over 50% of the time! We believe this will put local communities at risk. This decision can be reversed as new funding has been found which would allow the Fire Authority to continue with 24 hour a day staffing of Morley Fire Station.

We are due to meet the Fire Chief shortly and we will make sure we campaign hard to try and get this daytime staffing dumped!