Fresh uncertainty over fire plans

UNCERTAINTY surrounds plans for new fire stations in the Highlands which could be put on ice because the region’s fire service needs cash so it can train its workforce.

Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service has been working on major proposals for several new stations including bases in Sutherland, Caithness and Ross-shire which are at different stages, while construction of a new station in John O’Groats is already underway.

However, the fire service must find up to £4 million to pay for extra firefighters and improve training after it emerged standards were not up to scratch last year.

That could have a knock-on effect for the organisation’s capital programme of potential new stations in Bonar Bridge and Thurso while crews still use temporary buildings in Torridon and Kinlochewe.

The service had spent £1.44million on new buildings, vehicles and an upgraded IT system up until the end of last year.

But it wants to review all its building projects to see it can save cash which could be spent on training firefighters in the next financial year, which starts in April.

The move also comes after an Audit Scotland report which advised the service to review any investment in stations based in rural areas where fire risks are considered to be low.

The building projects are at different stages but officials are to review the potential costs and their “sustainability”.

The fire board, which is made up of councillors, met in Inverness last week and agreed to suspend the Bonar Bridge project until it is reviewed again in June.

Angus MacLeod, the service’s fire property manager, told the board that he would hold talks with the contractors at John O’Groats who are currently working to complete the station and ensure it is wind and water tight.

Mr MacLeod will establish the costs of deferring the remaining work or carrying on and report back to the board when it meets again next month.

Consultants have been appointed to assess whether the Thurso station should be upgraded or replaced but Mr MacLeod said there had been some “minor slippage” and a report will come back to the board in the next few months.

Applications for permission to continue operations at its Torridon and Kinlochewe stations, both of which have been on temporary consent for five years but had recently expired, have been submitted to Highland Council for a year’s extension.

However, Mr MacLeod said finding “permanent solutions” in the long term could be a condition of the new consent.

The service has already secured planning permission for a new station at Bonar Bridge to accommodate a new and bigger engine which cannot be housed in the current building. The cost of extra land needed for the building has also been agreed.

“At this time it is not in the board’s interests to invest in assets which could be redundant in the long term,” said Mr MacLeod.

Mr MacLeod warned the findings of his report about John O’Groats and other new stations in Orkney and Shetland could see the board decide to put one or two of the buildings up for sale on the open market.

“I don’t know what the costs of deferring the work is, “he said. “It will not be a standard cost you will have for each project. That is why I need the two weeks from now until 2nd March to get that information and present it to the board. The board will then have that information to make a decision on whether to defer or continue to completion. There are risks on continuing because the sustainability of the stations is not certain and risks with deferring."