Keep our Emergency Services local!
Thank you to everyone who signed the petition and for expressing your support to keep our emergency services local!
As you may be aware, the Fist Minister announced to Parliament on 7 September that the Government will introduce legislation to establish a single national police force and a national fire and rescue service.
Chief constables, fire chiefs, police boards, local authorities and the public have all expressed real fears about these proposals, concerns that I believe have not been addressed. It is also disappointing that the Goivernment has chosen to ignore the results of its own initial consultation.
Many rural parts of Scotland - including the North East - rely heavily on retained and volunteer fire fighters. In the Grampian region, we have 33 retained fire stations compared to six full-time. There is a very real risk that a single fire and rescue service could lead to a number of those retained stations being closed. COSLA, the representative body of Scotland's authorities, has warned that the plans could lead to "up to 1500 firefighters [across Scotland] losing their jobs". I have challenged the Scottish Government to guarantee that retained and volunteer stations will not be affected by the plans. Their loss would be a disaster for rural fire and rescue services.
Grampian Police and Grampian Fire and Rescue are rightly regarded as effective local services and it is wrong that their success is being jeopardised by the removal of local accountability and local command. My colleagues and I believe that Scotland-wide services simply cannot be as responsive to local needs as our current local services.
The Scottish Government has now launched a further consultation, seeking views on how the new services will work in practice. This is available on the Government's website at www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations and is open for all to respond to until 2 November 2011. Alternatively, you are very welcome to raise any particular concerns you have directly with me, and I would be more than happy to take them up on your behalf. Simply click 'Get In Touch' for details.
Thank you for your interest but we are no longer accepting signatures for this petition.
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