By Andrew Topping, Local Democracy Reporter
Fire engines are less available and take longer to attend major incidents in Ashfield following cutbacks that moved the district’s station to an on-call system at night, official figures show.
And a union leader has warned the changes are “failing”, with crews from neighbouring stations forced to cover when incidents occur and wholetime firefighters working overtime to fill gaps in the workforce.
The difficulties come four years after the Nottinghamshire Fire Authority reduced cover at the Kirkby-in-Ashfield site from wholetime to on-call between 6pm and 8am every day.
The 2018 changes, which were also brought in at Retford Fire Station, were controversially implemented in a bid to save the service £500,000 a year.
But now a review will be launched to assess whether Ashfield has enough fire cover following several serious and even fatal fires in the district this year.
During one incident, which occurred just before 7pm on January 29 in Forster Street, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, two people were pronounced dead at the scene.
The fire service confirmed at the time that crews from Mansfield, Hucknall, Eastwood, Chesterfield and Alfreton stations were in attendance. No crews from Ashfield attended the blaze.
Prior to the 2018 cutbacks, Ashfield Fire Station operated 24-hours-a-day with 26 wholetime firefighters.
This meant the station could offer at least one pump almost 100 per cent of the time and have a second appliance 80 per cent of the time at night.
However, fire service figures show these numbers have slowly declined since the changes came into effect, with on-call firefighters not always available when major incidents occur.
On-call availability at the station is now down to 88.9 per cent during night-time hours, having operated at 98.1 per cent availability in 2019/20.
In the most recent financial year, the station was also only able to provide both appliances 20.6 per cent of the time – a quarter of its pre-2018 levels.
And Mark Stilwell, chair of the East Midlands FBU branch, says this is the result of on-call and retained systems “not fitting modern working life”.
He says the fire service is struggling to retain on-call firefighters to cover the Ashfield station, with the service itself admitting its staffing has been a “challenge in recent years”.
“The system is failing completely,” Mr Stilwell told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“The response time there is worse than it was [before 2019] and there are significant times when we haven’t got any appliances available.
“It’s a shambles and it needs changing back. The people who are working can’t maintain two appliances at night, they can’t even maintain one some of the time.
“That’s shocking compared to what we did have, so going back to wholetime is the only way we can guarantee having fire cover at Ashfield.”
Separate figures show response times at Ashfield are now one minute longer than they were in 2018/19, with the average response taking nine minutes and 31 seconds in 2021/22.
This is 91 seconds longer than the service’s target of eight minutes to respond to a major incident.
And while the average response time across the wider service is currently seven minutes and 52 seconds, Ashfield crews currently take 99 seconds longer than average to respond to emergencies.
Mr Stilwell fears the changes are putting residents at risk, as well as providing people in Ashfield with a reduced service despite promises cover would not be affected.
“When the Fire Authority made the change, they said it won’t affect fire cover – it should be one pump pretty much guaranteed, but it hasn’t turned out like that,” he said.
“It is not giving Ashfield residents what they were told in the consultation, what they sold to the public.
“The second appliance should be there as a backup and it’s unavailable 80 per cent of the time at night, during the worst times of the day for fire deaths.
“That second pump – which you need for effective rescues – is just not there, and I don’t think it’s talked about enough.”
He added neighbouring stations including Mansfield, Hucknall, Eastwood and Stockhill are having to cover when crews are not available in Ashfield, potentially making those communities “vulnerable”.
“What happens when there’s a fire in those areas and the appliances are covering for Ashfield?” he said.
“It’s a dangerous game, luckily nothing has happened yet but I fear it’s going to take something going horribly wrong for something to change.”
Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service says fire cover and availability at Ashfield are being “constantly monitored”.
A spokesperson for the service said availability for on-call was better during the main Covid pandemic months, with more firefighters available “due to their personal circumstances”.
And now more effort is being made to ensure on-call firefighters have improved working arrangements, with the service constantly recruiting new people to take up the role.
“The availability of our fire engines at Ashfield during the night has been a challenge for us in recent years,” says Michael Sharman, head of response at the fire service. “Improving this is a priority for us.
“To help with this, we are currently trailing new contracts which are designed to improve the working arrangements for on-call firefighters and to help us attract and retain those that give up their time to protect others.
“We are constantly working very closely with our on-call staff to try and improve availability, and we continuously recruit on-call firefighters.
“Given the current global economic climate, this is likely to remain a challenge, but we will continue to offer the very best value and service that we possibly can.”
Their comments come after Councillor Jason Zadrozny (Ash Ind), chair of the Fire Authority’s community safety committee, announced a review of the changes will take place this year.
This, he says, will assess resources and cover at all 24 fire stations across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, but will also have a “particular focus” on whether the Ashfield decision is working.
Cllr Zadrozny, who is also leader of Ashfield District Council, was a vocal critic of the 2018 cutbacks and voted against them four years ago.
Chairing the meeting last Friday (April 1), he said: “It’s safe to say my view has not personally changed on this – my preference is always for wholetime crews at Ashfield Fire Station.
“I absolutely recognise the pressures of the budget, but what I want to say is my personal feeling is the crewing now is not quite right for Ashfield.”
The review will be undertaken throughout this year, with Cllr Zadrozny stating its findings will be reported back to the full fire authority in September or October.
