On Thursday 24th August, the Fire Brigades Union brought together firefighters from across Scotland for a mass rally in Glasgow to demonstrate against large-scale cuts to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
The Scottish government is currently threatening budget cuts which would see £11 million cut from the service this year, and a total of £36 million projected cuts by 2027.
These cuts impact communities across Scotland, involving the ‘mothballing’ of ten wholetime fire appliances, the reduction of high reach appliances from 25 to 14, and the scrapping of the dedicated water rescue response covering the River Clyde. They will also see a further significant reduction in firefighter posts across Scotland.
Ahead of the rally, the FBU gave a warning in a letter to the Scottish Government's Victims and Community Safety Minister, Siobhian Brown.
In the letter, Colin Brown, FBU Executive Committee member for Scotland said:
The FBU have been clear, we will not tolerate the decimation of the service we work in. We will continue to robustly resist these cuts and will ensure that if there is no improvement in the budgetary situation for SFRS, we will hold to account and expose the politicians who are responsible and those who sit back and passively accept the loss of jobs and increased risk to the lives of our members and the safety of the public we serve.
We are advising you today that the FBU will consider ALL options available to us to protect jobs and services.'
