Northumberland County Council are deliberately ignoring the results of a public consultation over a half million pound budget cut to fire and rescue services, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has said.
The views of the public who responded to the consultation undertaken by Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service will not be taken into account when the full council meets on Wednesday 24 February to set budgets across all of its departments.
Guy Tiffin, secretary of the FBU in Northumberland, said the news had left him and others bemused: “It is completely unacceptable for the council to ignore the consultation. Council taxpayers’ money was used to give the public a voice in this decision, it is morally wrong for the results to then be ignored when the budgets are set.
“The council will discuss the cuts at meetings throughout March and April but this will be pointless when budgets for each department will have already been set”.
