THIS GOVERNMENT IS OUT OF TOUCH ON FIRE SAFETY

THE Tory Fire Minister, Bob Neill has demonstrated how out of touch with reality he is after turning a blind eye to devastating fire service cuts.

Despite Prime Minister David Cameron’s pledge to protect frontline services, thousands of firefighter jobs will be axed as fire authorities up and down the land struggle to make their budgets balance.

In addition to the job losses, dozens of engines will be scrapped and scores of stations closed down with 36 out of 45 fire services nationwide affected.

But despite the enormous cutbacks, Mr Neill refused to admit public safety was being placed at risk I challenged him in the House of Commons.

Instead, Mr Neill retorted: “A lot of fire and rescue authorities are making the savings not by cutting firefighter posts or reducing fire stations, but through shared operations, better joint working and, interestingly, amended shift practices.”

But chief fire officers across the land have admitted that they fear being unable to deliver statutory services as a result of the cuts.

The Fire Minister is either totally out of touch with reality or being deliberately obtuse. He can spout nonsense about shared operations and joint working all he pleases, but it is an inescapable fact that there will be thousands fewer firefighters as a result of his cuts.

We’ve seen this Government bulldoze through their plans on the NHS, we’ve seen police forces scaled back, and now we’re seeing fire services decimated.

The reality is that this Government’s savings are coming so thick and fast that they are simply not achievable without destroying services.

The most terrifying thing is that the cuts have been ‘backloaded’ – so what we’ve seen so far is likely to be a drop in the ocean compared to the devastation being planned for the next two years.