'People shouldn't fear fire station closures'

The Telegraph recently revealed that the convenor of the local fire scrutiny committee, Cllr Tommy McVey had called for urgent clarity on local provision amid a strategic plan review being conducted by the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service.

Bosses at SFRS say that they are in the middle of a national consultation about the future of the whole organisation and that clarity will come later on local services.

Cllr McVey says he is worried that Inverclyde could end up losing one of its stations and he has vowed to fight to keep all three of them open.

However Depute Provost David Wilson has now entered the debate, giving his view that the district doesn't necessarily need three fire stations.

He believes that the recent reorganisation of Police Scotland, which left Inverclyde with just one station, in Greenock, shows that the area could cope.

Councillor Wilson said: "The fire service received 95 calls in Inverclyde in May.

"Seventy nine of those calls were minor.

"That works out as an average as 30 calls per station, one call a day, although Greenock will be busier than Port Glasgow and Gourock.

"We shouldn't fear losing a fire station, as the police have proved that with one police station the service is better."

The Tory councillor stressed that he wasn't actively suggesting closing stations down.

When asked by the Tele about potential job losses which could be involved in such a decision, Mr Wilson said: "I don't think there has been a loss of police officers with having only one station.

"There are more police officers out on the beat now.

"I am not advocating closing fire stations but the figures for May show that they attended 90 calls within May, across three fire stations that is one call a day from each station."