By Keith Aitken in Edinburgh | 18 August 2011
Scotland’s local authorities have poured scorn on the Scottish Government’s business case for merging the eight fire services into one, claiming it won’t save the money claimed and could cut up to 1,500 firefighter posts.
Pat Watters, president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, said: ‘Implementing change on the basis of the case so far would simply be irresponsible. There is a real possibility that we're institutionalising risk here.
‘Tying people up in an unnecessary centralisation exercise – designed it would seem to cut fire stations and firefighters – is indefensible, when there is a better, evidenced case for a regional model that protects those same firefighters and stations, and saves pretty much the same money.’
Cosla, chief fire officers and fire board conveners agree that the number of services should be cut but oppose the national model. They would prefer to reduce the number of regional services to three or four, which they calculate could save upwards of £30m. They are sceptical of a claim in the business case that a national service could save up to £59m. Cosla reckons the government’s route would save no more than its own would – unless frontline capacity was cut.
It notes an admission in the government’s paper that ‘for most services the provision of stations, vehicles and crews is historically based ,with no clear evidence base for continued allocation of resources in light of current demand and future challenges’. Cosla interprets this as a tacit readiness to cut back operational capacity.
‘Estimates suggest that this could mean up to 1,500 firefighters going,’ the Cosla analysis says. It remarks that ‘surprisingly’ the Fire Brigades Union has so far supported the single-service model but might want to review its stance in the light of these projections.
Watters commented: ‘We could potentially have the worst of all worlds where we lose the staff but still struggle to make the savings forecast.’
FBU Scotland’s response to the government’s plans does not rule out using ‘all methods available to a trade union’ to safeguard jobs, pay and conditions against unacceptable proposals.
But it adds that, faced with spending cuts: ‘We do believe that restructuring the service is the best way to protect those jobs without the use of industrial action.’
