Fire chief says islands won’t be side-lined
SCOTLAND’S new fire chief Alistair Hay has strenuously denied remote areas like Shetland would not lose out under the new centralised fire and rescue service.
During a whistle stop tour of the isles on Thursday, Alistair Hay refused to comment on the controversial closure of retained fire stations in some of Shetland’s most isolated communities, Foula and Skerries.
He insisted this was a matter for the Highlands and Islands board, which will become defunct on 1 April next year under the new regime set up by Alex Salmond’s new administration in Holyrood.
After meeting local fire officers and senior figures in Shetland Islands Council, as well as briefly visiting Sullom Voe oil terminal, Hay said he had been left in no doubt about islanders’ fears for the future service.
He stressed that under the new regime the local council would have greater involvement in the service, working with a senior local fire officer.
“Importantly the local fire plan has to be agreed by the local authority,” he said.
“That ensures that all of Scotland will get a fair and equitable access to the Scottish fire and rescue service.”
The fire service is under tremendous pressure to cut costs along with other public services.
This will be done through greater emphasis on “prevention and protection”, Hay said.
“We want to work with communities to make them as safe as they can possibly be, because we don’t want an emergency incident to occur in the first place.
“Irrespective of whether you are on a small island or the centre of a big city, we use integrated risk management planning.
“We identify what the risk is, we quantify what that risk is, and then we take active steps to drive the risk down further using prevention and protection.
“Then we have an emergency response available that is appropriate to deal with the remaining risk.
“I know people view services simply by emergency response, but it is more than that.
“The work begins well before you need an emergency response. That is the crucial phase – work in the communities to make them safer.”
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