Rural communities ‘at risk over
multi-million pound fire cuts’

The findings, published by the Rural Services Network, have revealed predominantly rural fire and rescue services receive just £17.52 per head of population in Government funding compared with £28.89 per head of population for Greater London and other large urban conurbations.

They also claim North Yorkshire now has one of the lowest funding allocations in the country, despite the extra costs associated with operating in England’s largest rural county.

With South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service battling £10m budget cuts and a consultation closing this week on West Yorkshire Fire Service plans to axe 200 full-time firefighter posts and close a string of stations, critics claim urgent action is needed to redistribute the money and provide greater cover to some of the region’s most rural areas.

Their warning comes as respected economic think tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, today suggested the era of austerity could last until 2018 as George Osborne is forced to extend spending cuts still further into the next parliament.

The Rural Services Network report claims the average response time to incidents in rural areas is now just over 10 minutes – three minutes longer than in urban areas.

Richard Stevens, brigade secretary for the North Yorkshire Fire Brigades Union, told the Yorkshire Post a proposed closure of a station in Snainton, near Scarborough, as a result of budget cuts could more than double response times to up to 20 minutes to villages in the surrounding area.