Merger of Scotland's fire services 'inevitable'

Published on Tuesday 10 August 2010 17:41

A SCOTTISH fire chief has said that a merger of the country's fire and rescue services is "inevitable" as the public spending squeeze continues.

The new chief of the Lothian and Borders fire brigade Jimmy Campbell warned that Scotland's eight fire services could be merged into three.

Mr Campbell said the move was needed because of cuts of up to 25 per cent set to hit frontline services, including fire and rescue operations.

His comments come just days after The Scotsman revealed that a plan for Fife and Lothian and Borders to share a chief fire officer was vetoed, despite offering potential savings of tens of thousands of pounds.

The proposal was put forward by Fife after Mr Campbell, its most senior firefighter, left to take the top job at Lothian and Borders. But it was withdrawn after Mike Bridgman, the SNP convener of the Lothian and Borders Fire Board, made it clear to Fife that he would be opposed to the idea.

Now Mr Campbell has said he wants to see all of Scotland's fire and rescue services amalgamated into west, south-east and north regions.

"We don't know at this stage what cuts will be expected in services like ours, but with commentators speculating on cuts from 12 per cent to as much as 25 per cent we know these cuts will be significant and there is no way that cannot affect how we currently do business," he said.

"At present we do things eight times over: eight chief fire officers, eight sets of senior management, eight sets of back office support across a range of jobs, personnel, pays, IT, to name but a few.

"If we look at the number of fire and rescue services in Scotland, there must be a better way of doing things.

"I believe that it's inevitable that at the end of this four-year period of budget cuts we will not have eight fire and rescue services across Scotland; they will have been merged perhaps to three, covering the west of Scotland, the south-east and the north."

Mr Campbell said he wanted to work with other fire and rescue service bosses as well as trade unions to look at how changes could be made without putting lives at risk.

He said: "It is critical that any changes we make do not affect frontline services and undo this excellent record that has contributed to making Scotland a safer place to live.

"In Lothian and Borders 84 per cent of our gross expenditure is in staff costs. This will be replicated in other fire services.

"If we are to deliver savings of some 20-25 per cent as some suggest, sharing back room services alone will not give us the required savings."

Mr Campbell's intervention came as the Scottish Government's cabinet met in Stirling yesterday, as part of a summer tour away from Edinburgh.A public question and answer session focused mainly on the cuts crisis highlighted in the independent budget review.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "We welcome the fact that Mr Campbell and the other fire chiefs are engaging in the dialogue following publication of the independent budget review.

"All constructive suggestions will be listened to prior to any decisions being taken."