Fire cuts to go ahead

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue needs to save £10million by 2015.

Among the changes is alterations to the way Aston and Maltby Fire Stations will be crewed.

During a consultation 16 alternative proposals were received. After these were assessed, the South Yorkshire Fire Authority has recommended to members that the original proposals be implemented at its meeting on Monday.

SYFR’s chief fire officer Jamie Courtney said: “We have given full consideration to all the alternative proposals put forward. Where relevant, we have used computer software to help us to analyse them and compare them to our own proposals. We believe that none of the alternative proposals provide both the necessary level of emergency fire cover with the same level of savings.”

“We don’t want to make these changes but, faced with a likely £10million funding cut, we believe these proposals will enable us to reduce our budget with the minimum impact on the public.”