Cheshire Fire and Rescue to sell homes to fund revamp

The service has published its proposals in the draft version of its Community Risk Management Plan 2024-28.

Proposals include selling off homes owned by the service in Stockton Heath in order to 'replace' the fire station in the heart of Warrington.

Other ideas put forward include cutting the hours the station in Birchwood is crewed.

The service plans to sell homes in Stockton Heath to fund its upgrading of the town centre fire station (Image: Newsquest)

According to the service: "To draw up our proposals for the CRMP, we have looked at a range of information about the incidents we attend, our changing population and the risks we face in the future.

"We have also listened carefully to the views of our staff and the public."

The service says its proposals will allow it to:

• Respond to incidents as quickly as it does now and, where possible, even quicker in the future
• Keep the same number of fire engines and fire stations
• Have more fire engines available, especially during the day
• Rely less on on-call (part-time) fire engines and increase the number of full-time fire engines
• Give staff more time to keep communities safe
• Strengthen the service's prevention and protection work
• Look after its people and avoid compulsory redundancies
• Be a safe, supportive and inclusive workplace
• Provide good, modern and sustainable buildings for staff to work in
• Maintain the same costs and deliver value for money

Regarding hours at Birchwood Fire Station, the service says: "We propose to crew the Birchwood fire engine with full-time firefighters between 7am and 7pm on 50 per cent of days (four days in eight), then by on-call firefighters on the other 50 per cent of days.

"There would be no change to the on-call cover overnight between 7pm and 7am."

As it stands, Birchwood is currently crewed by full-time firefighters between 7am and 7pm every day and at night by on-call firefighters who live or work within five minutes of the fire station and respond by pager when on-call.

Plans for Stockton Heath include: "To crew the Stockton Heath fire engine with full-time firefighters between 7am and 7pm on 50 per cent of days (four days in eight).

"Outside of these times there would be no on-call cover in Stockton Heath.

"Instead, neighbouring fire stations such as Warrington and Lymm would respond to incidents within 10 minutes.

"This happens now when Stockton Heath’s on-call fire engine is not available."

The service has also said that these proposals would allow it to sell off nine homes it owns in Stockton Heath - the proceeds of these sales would go toward replacing the service's station in the centre of Warrington.

The proposals are still in draft form, with public opinions wanted by the service (Image: Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service)

According to the draft, the impact of these proposals in Warrington will be as follows:

• No change to the number of full-time fire engines during the day in Warrington borough, which would remain at four.
• Average response times in Stockton Heath may be up to one minute faster. Average response times in Birchwood may be up to one minute slower. Average response times in both areas would still be within 10 minutes.
• No change to community work and prevention and protection activities in Warrington borough, but activity would be spread more evenly across Birchwood and Stockton Heath.
• Six of the 12 full-time firefighter posts at Birchwood would move to Stockton Heath.
• No change to the number of on-call firefighter posts at Birchwood and the on-call crew would be able to cover 50 per cent of days instead of nights only.
• 15 on-call firefighter posts would be removed from Stockton Heath. Only 10 of these posts are filled currently. Of these, five are filled by people who are full-time firefighters. The remaining five on-call firefighters would be offered suitable alternative employment with us. In addition, those on-call firefighters currently renting the houses we own near to the fire station would move out. We would work closely with our trade unions to support staff and minimise the impact of the changes.
• When the full-time fire engine is not available at Stockton Heath there would be no on-call cover. Cover will be provided by Warrington and Lymm within 10 minutes.
• We would sell Authority houses at Stockton Heath to help fund our capital programme.

For more information on Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service's draft Community Risk Management Plan 2024-28, use this link: https://www.cheshirefire.gov.uk/news-events/latest-news/have-your-say-on-our-draft-community-risk-management-plan-2024-28/