Dorset and Wiltshire FBU has launched local campaigns across the region, calling on councillors and the fire authority to reverse plans to slash fire cover.
Fire and rescue service bosses announced the plans only a month before removing fire engines from stations in September. Firefighters were shocked to find the engines had disappeared from four fire stations without warning.
Under the plans, there will be no guaranteed firefighter availability between Swindon and Salisbury which are more than 40 miles apart. The engines disappeared from stations protecting the vast and dangerous network of former limestone mine tunnels known as the Corsham Underground, as well as at-risk historic high streets.
Wholetime cover will be downgraded in several areas, with fewer firefighters available at night. Poole, which provides fire cover across the south of Dorset, faces losing a wholetime crewed fire engine by April next year.
Neil Duncan-Jordan, Labour MP for Poole, has said that these cuts “simply don’t add up”. The removal of fire engines at Wimborne, Sherborne and Portland is due to be reviewed in January 2025.
