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RESOLVED:

1.      Milton Keynes City Council notes
misleading claims placed into the public domain that
Buckinghamshire Fire Authority has made any proposals to reduce
service levels in Milton Keynes and is dismayed that early
discussions between officers with employee representatives have
been falsely portrayed as anything other than initial discussions
over potential options for service reform.

2.      That this Council would not support any
future proposals to reduce service capacity at Broughton and West
Ashland fire stations.
3.            
That fire service
appliances require trained firefighters to crew them in order to be
operational.
4.            
The Council requests
Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service provide details of any
proposals to change fire and rescue capacity in relation to new
employment models and alternative, more agile firefighting
vehicles.
5.            
The Council asks the
Cabinet Member for Community Safety to write to the Chief Fire
Officer to set out why Milton Keynes City Council would not support
any future proposal to reduce operational capacity at West Ashland
and Broughton fire stations.
6.            
The response should
highlight the assurances given to Milton Keynes residents regarding
fire cover by the former Chief Fire Officer when the
Conservativemembers of the Conservative controlled Buckinghamshire
and Milton Keynes Fire Authority voted to close Great Holm and
Bletchley Fire Stations, and why retaining and enhancing the
current operational capacity is important, to reflect the proposed
growth of the city.
7.            
That the Council
condemns the misinformation that local Conservative councillors in
Milton Keynes and MPs in Buckinghamshire have been circulating
which has unnecessarily concerned the public, and for misleading
statements suggesting that initial discussions at an officer level
are formal proposals that are in some way the equivalent of the
disgraceful decision by the Conservative members of the
Conservative controlled Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire
Authority to close Great Holm and Bletchley Fire Stations which
reduced fire and rescue capacity and appliances in Milton
Keynes.
8.            
While under
Conservative control, Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service was
given two inadequate inspection reports by HMICFRS, which
consistently criticised the failure of the then Conservative-led
authority to review resource levels in some areas of
Buckinghamshire that are not actually genuinely operational, and
that instigating hysterical and fundamentally untrue campaigns on
matters of public safety is dangerous and disingenuous political
opportunism with no basis in fact.