Councillor saw ‘no point’ in objecting to Balmossie decision

Friday 29.1.10

A depute convener of Tayside’s fire board has said she “didn’t see the point” of trying to stop fellow Dundee councillors opposing the removal of full-time night cover from Balmossie Fire Station (writes James Williamson).
East End SNP councillor Christina Roberts, one of two depute conveners of Tayside’s Fire and Rescue Board, made no effort to formally oppose the decision at Monday’s meeting of the city council’s policy and resources committee.
The downgrading of Balmossie in favour of providing a full-time day shift in Forfar is one of a number of plans contained in a consultation document by the fire service for Perthshire, Dundee and Angus.

But a motion by administration leader Ken Guild called for the council to reject the Balmossie plan, while accepting the rest of the proposals contained within this year’s Towards a Safer Tayside plan. After discussion and slight amendment, councillors agreed with Mr Guild, without the matter going to a vote.

Neither Ms Roberts, nor fellow fire board members councillors Dave Bowes, Andy Dawson, Liz Fordyce, Richard McCready, Rod Wallace or Helen Wright, lodged a counter-motion, or amendment, and none recorded their dissent.

Ms Roberts told the Tele she didn’t try to stop the council objecting to changes at Balmossie because “it wouldn’t have changed anything anyway”.

“I just sat there and listened to it,” she said. “I was in the room, but when they all said they agreed with the motion I said nothing. It was 28 against — I didn’t see the point of doing or saying anything.

“It wouldn’t have changed anything anyway. They had already made the decision that they were going with the motion.”

Councillors made arrangements to allow them to hear deputations from both the Fire Brigades Union and senior officers of Tayside Fire and Rescue at the meeting.

The fire board’s convener, Perthshire SNP councillor Ken Lyall, slammed Dundee’s SNP-led administration in the aftermath of the meeting, while Ms Roberts said she was “disappointed” with the decision.

“I put my name to the paperwork in the first instance,” she said. “If you look at Towards a Safer Tayside, then the convener and vice conveners are there promoting this as the document which we think is the right track.”

“I was disappointed it’s gone to Dundee saying ‘we want to keep Balmossie the way it is’, when what they are actually saying is they don’t think it’s right we should be looking at moving a (Balmossie) nightshift onto day shift in Forfar.”

She criticised the FBU, claiming its opposition to the change focused on the perceived reduction in service at Balmossie, rather than on an improvement in service in Forfar.

“The FBU said that 37 times the retained unit had not been able to turn out (at Balmossie), but couldn’t give me information on how many of those were during the day, or how many times retained crews had been unavailable in Forfar,” she said.

“They have not mentioned Forfar at all. This is not just about Dundee, but about Forfar and the area around Forfar too. Sometimes they can’t get a full crew out. What about them?

“It’s a comparable situation, but the FBU is not bumping its gums for a full-time crew in Forfar.”

She insisted the council’s opposition to the scheme did not mean it was now dead in the water — but said she didn’t know how the future would pan out.

“Dundee City Council does not constitute the whole fire board,” she said. “So you can’t say it’s dead in the water — the consultation is still going on until March.

“But when you go into a fire board meeting you don’t take political baggage with you — you are there to do the best you can for the whole of Tayside.

“We were hopeful last year, but the board looked at it long and hard and it didn’t get through. But if we can’t make a decision on Balmossie, what are we going to do when times get really tough?

“We are in for a tough time ahead, and it might be that councils are not able to provide as much funding in the future.”

Her warning echoes one given by Tayside Fire Chief Stephen Hunter ahead of Monday’s board meeting in Perth.

As the Tele revealed yesterday, a report to the board warns of budget cuts of up to 12% for the service and the need to save £1 million a year from 2011.

Ms Roberts also claimed fire board members had been “intimidated” by the presence of so many FBU members at last year’s vote on the Balmossie plan.

“We have had some councillors saying they went along with the vote because they knew it was going to fail,” she said. “They felt intimidated when they went to the meeting.”

© All copyright D C Thomson & Co Ltd., 2010