A campaign to stop cuts proposed by Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service are being backed by the town council over fears it could remove “guaranteed night” cover at Trowbridge Fire Station and “lives could be at risk”.
Councillors have voted unanimously to back a Fire Brigades Union campaign to stop proposed cuts to services in Wiltshire.
It would see Trowbridge change from a day crewed system to day duty crewed by wholetime firefighters 7.30am to 7.30pm, maintaining on call cover at night.
The union has voiced “grave concerns” about Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service proposals over fears it will ‘remove the guaranteed night cover at the station”.
The town council has voted to back the campaign to stop the planned cuts, which the union claims will put residents and firefighters at risk of “significant injury or harm”.
Trowbridge Town Council leader and deputy mayor Cllr Stewart Palmen said: “We will be writing to the Chief Fire Office Ben Ansell and to members of the Fire Authority committee.
“We have lost our hospital, we don’t want to lose our fully-manned fire station.”
Trowbridge and Wiltshire councillor Daniel Cave, who is a member of the Fire Authority committee, added: “I recently met with the Trowbridge Fire Service and listened closely to their detailed and evidence-backed concerns.
“I then asked our officers to provide a comprehensive response to each point raised and to meet directly with the Trowbridge team to address these issues.
“However, the response I received has not fully addressed any of the claims made, leaving me unable to refute even a single accusation from Trowbridge Fire Service.
“I am now awaiting further clarification from our officers and am increasingly concerned about the lack of engagement with elected representatives on these crucial matters.”
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A spokesperson for DWFRS said: "As with many public sector organisations, Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service are facing significant financial challenges, and we have a programme of work in place to make sure we are sustainable for the future.
"There is a requirement for all fire and rescue services to review their community risk profile to provide value for money services to our communities.
"Following a comprehensive fire cover review, we are looking at the position, the number and type of our resources to make sure these meet the changing risk profile across our service area – we need to make sure our resources are in the right place based on community need.
"Fundamental to the fire cover review is maintaining, and where we can, improving our response to emergency incidents, continuing to be there when our communities need us.
"This programme has included a review of working patterns at five fire stations across the service area and this detailed data analysis has informed the decision to change duty systems at Chippenham, Christchurch, Dorchester, Trowbridge and Westlea fire stations, as well as the recently implemented day duty system at Amesbury fire station.
"Trowbridge will change from a day crewed system to day duty crewed by wholetime firefighters 7.30am to 7.30pm, maintaining on-call cover at night
"These decisions are made under the delegation of the Chief Fire Officer and the changes will take effect between April and September 2025."
Vikki Shearing, deputy assistant chief officer – corporate support, and clerk to the Fire and Rescue Authority, said: "The new arrangements provide Trowbridge with 12 hours of immediate response during the key hours 7.30am to 7.30pm when we know the majority of incidents occur.
"The wholetime firefighters will be on station for these hours and the on-call crews continue to provide the same cover from their home address outside of these hours, in the evening."
Despite this Val Hampshire, an executive council member of the Fire Brigades Union South West Region, says the new shift pattern will remove the night cover which is currently given meaning there will be no “guaranteed night cover”.
Val states that currently “RDS Firefighters [on-call firefighter] can only crew one appliance 56 per cent of the time between 6pm and 6am” without assistance of day crewed members and “they will struggle even more if they have to provide two appliances and a heavy rescue unit”.
“Removing the guaranteed night cover will put the residents of Trowbridge at risk of significant injury or harm, it will also put the firefighters at risk.”
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